Eiríkr Magnússon

Eiríkr or Eiríkur Magnússon (1 February 1833 – 24 January 1913) was an Icelandic scholar who was Librarian at the University of Cambridge, taught Old Norse to William Morris, translated numerous Icelandic sagas into English in collaboration with him, and played an important role in the movement to study the history and literature of the Norsemen in Victorian England.

Biography

Born in Berufjörður in the east of Iceland, Eiríkr was sent to England in 1862 by the Icelandic Bible Society,[1] and his first translations there were of mediaeval Christian texts.[2]

In 1871, with the assistance of Sir Henry Holland and of Alexander Beresford-Hope, MP for Cambridge, he became a librarian at the University of Cambridge,[3][4] where he worked until the end of 1909.[5][6] In 1893 he also became lecturer in Icelandic.[7]

Eiríkr lectured and organised famine relief for Iceland in 1875 and 1882[8][9] and fell out with Guðbrandur Vigfússon, a fellow Icelandic scholar who was at Oxford and had been his friend, over that[10][11] and his preference for modernised Icelandic in translating the Bible; Guðbrandur was a purist.[12]

Like many Icelandic scholars in Britain at the time, Eiríkr gave Icelandic lessons as a source of income; his first pupil was probably Sir Edmund Head in 1863, and he taught some by post.[13] Another was George E.J. Powell, who had supported him financially when he first came to England and with whom he translated Jón Arnason's Icelandic folktales and worked on a translation of Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings that remained unpublished.[14]

Most famously, he taught William Morris and collaborated with him on translating a number of sagas. Within a year of Morris beginning his studies with Eiríkr, their Story of Grettir the Strong was published (1869). In 1870 they published the first English translation of Völsungasaga. In 1871 Eiríkr and his wife accompanied Morris to Iceland, where Eiríkr went with Morris on a tour of "saga steads" and other places of interest.[15]

Between 1891 and 1905 they published a six-volume Saga Library, which included Heimskringla and the first English translations of Hávarðar saga Ísfirðings, Hænsa-Þóris saga and Eyrbyggja Saga.[16][17] Eiríkr defended Morris against York Powell's criticism of his archaic style.[18] Volume 6 of the Saga Library, volume 4 of the Heimskringla, is an index that is entirely Eiríkr's work, published in 1905 after Morris's death.[19]

Eiríkr was married to Sigríður Einarsdóttir,[20] a descendant of Egill Skallagrímsson.[21] She campaigned to improve education for girls in Iceland.

He is buried in the Mill Road cemetery, Cambridge.

Publications

The Saga Library series
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1891), The Story of Howard the Halt; The Story of the Banded Men; The Story of Hen Thorir, 1
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1892), The Story of the Ere-Dwellers (Eyrbyggya Saga) with The Story of the Heath-Slayings (Heisarvíga Saga), 2
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1893), "Heimskringla (Volume I)", The Stories of the Kings of Norway, 3
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1894), "Heimskringla (Volume II)", The Stories of the Kings of Norway, 4
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1895), "Heimskringla (Volume III)", The Stories of the Kings of Norway (New ed.), 5
Other Saga
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr; Þorgilsson, Ari, eds. (1891) [1869], The story of Gunnlaug the Worm-tongue and Raven the Skald .., Chiswick Press , e-text
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1869), The Story of Grettir the Strong (2nd ed.) , e-text
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1870), Völsunga Saga : The Story of the Volsungs & Niblings with certain songs from the Elder Edda
    • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr; Weston, Jessie L., eds. (1907), Volsunga Saga : The Story of the Volsungs and Niblings, with certain songs from the Elder Edda , introduction by H. Halliday Sparling , e-text
    • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr; Weston, Jessie L., eds. (1907), The Volsunga Saga [..] supplemented with Legends of the Wanger Trilogy , introduction by H. Halliday Sparling
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1875), The Story Of Frithiof The Bold , e-text
  • Morris, William; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1901) [1875], Three Northern Love Stories, and other tales; (New ed.) , Gunnlaug the Worm-tongue and Raven the Skald; Frithof the Bold; Viglund the Fair; Hogni and Hedinn; Roi the Fool; Thorstein Staff-smitten
  • Runeberg, Johan Ludwig; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1912), King Fialar : a poem in five songs
Other
  • Arnason, Jon; Powell, George E.J.; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1864), Icelandic Legends , Elves; Water-Monsters; Trolls; Ghosts and Goblins; Misc.
  • Arnason, Jon; Powell, George E.J.; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1866), Icelandic Legends (2nd series) , God and the Evil One; Paradise and Hell; Divine Punishment; Historical Legends; Outlaws; Tales; Comic Stories; Appendix
  • Ásgrímsson, Eysteinn (1870), Magnússon, Eirikr, ed., Lilja (The Lily) - an Icelandic Religious Poem of the Fourteenth Century , as editor and translator
  • Runeberg, Johan Ludwig (1878), Magnússon, Eirikr; Palmer, E.H., eds., Lyrical Songs Idylls and Epigrams
Journal articles
  • Magnússon, Eirikr, ed. (20 Mar 1877), "On a Runic Calendar Found in Lapland in 1866", Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, 4 (1)
  • Magnússon, Eirikr, ed. (13 May 1878), "Description of a Norwegian Clog-Calendar", Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, IV
  • Magnússon, Eirikr, ed. (1885), On Hávamál: Verses 2 and 3 (Bugges Edition) , reprinted from Proc. Cambridge Philogical Society, October 1884, No.IX
  • Magnússon, Eirikr, ed. (1906), Notes on Shipbuilding and Nautical Terms of Old in the North , paper for the Viking Club Society for Northern Research
Icelandic
  • Pétursson, Pétur; Magnússon, Eirikr; Melsteð, Sigurður, eds. (1866), Hið nýa testamenti : drottins vors Jesú Krists ásamt me Davíðs Sálmum [The New Testament: Our Lord Jesus Christ, along with David's Psalms] (in Icelandic)
  • Magnússon, Eirikr, ed. (1875), Thómas Saga Erkibyskups: A Life of Archbishop Thomas Becket, in Icelandic, with English Translation, Notes, and Glossary (in Icelandic and English), I
  • Magnússon, Eirikr, ed. (1883), Thómas Saga Erkibyskups: A Life of Archbishop Thomas Becket, in Icelandic, with English Translation, Notes, and Glossary (in Icelandic and English), II
  • Jochumsson, Matthías; Magnússon, Eirikr, eds. (1885), Minningarljód eftir Brynjólf Benediktsen og dóttur hans Ingileif Benediktsen [Remembrance of Brynjólf Benediktsen and his daughter Ingileif Benediktsen] (in Icelandic), Ísafoldarprentsmiðja

References

  1. ↑ Litzenberg 1947, p. 15.
  2. ↑ Wawn 2000, p. 12.
  3. ↑ Wawn 2000, p. 57.
  4. ↑ Wawn 1990, pp. 213-52; p. 234.
  5. ↑ "University Intelligence", The Times, 13 July 1910
  6. ↑ Report of the Library Syndicate, Cambridge University Library, 5 Mar 1913, p. 2
  7. ↑ Einarsson 1933, p. 194.
  8. ↑ Wawn 2000, pp. 11–12, 356.
  9. ↑ Harris 1978, pp. 31-41; pp. 32-33.
  10. ↑ Wawn 1990, p. 233.
  11. ↑ Harris 1978, pp. 38-39: Guðbrandur was not alone in doubting the famine was as bad as the Mansion House Committee had advertised, and published in The Times on 13 October 1882 arguing that "They are teaching my countrymen to beg and to play the pauper"..
  12. ↑ Wawn 2000, p.356 ; Eiríkr wrote Mr. Vigfusson and the Distress in Iceland (1882) and Dr. Gudbrand Vigfusson's Ideal of an Icelandic New Testament Translation, or The Gospel of St. Matthew by Lawman Odd Gottskalksson (1879)..
  13. ↑ Wawn 2000, pp. 358–59.
  14. ↑ Wawn 2000, p. 361.
  15. ↑ Harris, Richard L. (1975), "William Morris, Eiríkur Magnússon, and Iceland: A Survey of Correspondence", Victorian Poetry, 13 (3/4), JSTOR 40001839
  16. ↑ Litzenberg 1947, p. 13.
  17. ↑ Wawn 2000, p. 259.
  18. ↑ Wawn 2000, p. 260; note 71.
  19. ↑ Litzenberg 1947, p.9, note 19 : calls it "tremendous . . . It demonstrates Magnússon's erudition as completely as anything he wrote or translated".
  20. ↑ Einarsson 1933, p. 12.
  21. ↑ Wawn 2000, p. 366.

Sources

  • Wawn, Andrew (2000), The Vikings and the Victorians: Inventing the Old North in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Cambridge: Brewer, ISBN 0-85991-575-1
  • Wawn, Andrew (1990), "The Spirit of 1892: Sagas, Saga-Steads and Victorian Philology" (PDF), Saga-Book, 23
  • Litzenberg, Karl (1947), "The Victorians and the Vikings: A Bibliographical Essay on Anglo-Norse Literary Relations", Contributions in Modern Philology, University of Michigan (3)
  • Einarsson, Stefán (1933), Saga Eiríks Magnússonar í Cambridge (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja, p. 194, OCLC 23541599
  • Harris, Richard L. (1978–1981), "William Morris, Eiríkur Magnússon, and the Icelandic Famine Relief Efforts of 1882" (PDF), Saga-Book (20)

Further reading

  • Einarsson, Stefán (February 1923), "Eiríkr Magnússon's Saga Translations", Scandinavian Studies and Notes (7): 151–68
  • Einarsson, Stefán (1933–1935), "Eiríkr Magnússon and His Saga Translations", Scandinavian Studies and Notes (13): 17–32
    • Reprinted in : Liberman, Anatoly; Einarsson, Stefán, eds. (1986), Studies in Germanic Philology, Hamburg: Buske, pp. 150–164, ISBN 9783871187551
  • Wawn, Andrew (2000), "'Fast er drukkið og fátt lært': Eiríkur Magnússon, Old Northern Philology, and Victorian Cambridge", H.M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures, Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University of Cambridge (11), OCLC 47118621
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