Muriel Press
Muriel Annie Caroline Press (née Hoare, 1867 – 1937) was an English translator who published the first translations of Laxdæla saga and Færeyinga saga into English.
Life[edit]
She was born in London on 22 February 1867, the eldest of seven children of Sir Samuel Hoare, 1st baronet, and his wife Katherine Louisa, née Hart.[1] Her brother was the politician Samuel John Gurney Hoare. In 1896 she married Edward Payne Press of Clifton.[2] By 1903 they were living in Bristol.[3]
Translations[edit]
In 1899 she translated Laxdæla saga into English with the help of 'a competent Icelander' (Eiríkr Magnússon),[4] who revised the Icelandic text.[5] This was the first complete English translation of the saga, which had been popularised in Britain by William Morris' poem 'The Lovers of Gudrun.' [6][7] It had minimal critical apparatus but proved influential, being republished by Everyman in 1906.[8]
In 1934 she also published the first translation into English of Færeyinga saga.[9]
References[edit]
- ^ Hoare, Edward (1883). Some Account of the Early History and Genealogy, with Pedigrees from 1330, Unbroken to the Present Time, of the Families of Hore and Hoare: With All Their Branches : ... with Anecdotes ... of the Principal Persons Mentioned. A.R. Smith. p. 40.
- ^ Lodge, Edmund (1907). The Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage & Companionage of the British Empire for 1907. Kelly's Directories. p. 965.
- ^ Fiske, Willard (1903). Mímir: Icelandic Institutions, with Addresses. MCMIII. M. Truelsen. p. 42.
- ^ France, Peter; Haynes, Kenneth (2006-02-23). The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English:: Volume 4: 1790-1900. Oxford University Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-19-924623-6.
- ^ "Laxdæla Saga Translated from the Icelandic". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
- ^ Parergon. Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1971. p. 26.
- ^ Parker, Joanne; Wagner, Corinna (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism. Oxford University Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-19-966950-9.
- ^ Kunz, Keneva (1994). Retellers of Tales: An Evaluation of English Translations of Laxdæla Saga. University of Iceland Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-9979-9011-4-3.
- ^ Holm, Bill (2010-08-01). The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland. Milkweed Editions. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-57131-828-2.