Chapter published in:
A World Atlas of TranslationEdited by Yves Gambier and Ubaldo Stecconi
[Benjamins Translation Library 145] 2019
► pp. 355–374
Chapter 17. Germanic tradition
Gauti Kristmannsson | University of Iceland
The report on the Germanic translation tradition spans a long period of time, from the Gothic beginnings and the Nt translation of bishop Wulfila in the fourth century, through the Carolingian Renaissance and the late medieval traffic of chansons de geste and romances, disseminated and read for centuries. The Reformation and its translational explosion is another important aspect and in the following centuries, it may be argued that the literary development of the Germanic speaking literatures was more or less driven by translation, through translations and imitations of the classics right into the Romantic era, which, paradoxically, led to the invention of the purely original author and ever increasing translational activity, since the mother tongues had taken over in the Germanic literary systems.
Keywords: Bible translations, imitations, mother tongue, romance, translation without an original
Published online: 05 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.145.17kri
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.145.17kri
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