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English to Danish: “Contributions to the study of Othin; especially in his relation to agricultural practices in modern popular lore”, Jan de Vries, published Helsinki 1931
Source text - English Source text: “Contributions to the study of Othin; especially in his relation to agricultural practices in modern popular lore”, Jan de Vries, published Helsinki 1931, introduction.
If we wish to establish the real significance of a heathen Teutonic deity and the way in which it has developed in the course of the ages, we can not restrict ourselves to the study of literary documents, such as the Icelandic poems of the Edda or the sagas, but we have to look for information from other sources also. Scholars have been accustomed to draw for this purpose largely on folkloristic sources such as popular customs and superstitions. This method, indispensable as it may be for the reconstruction of the early Germanic religion, about which the extant sources have practically nothing to say, is open to serious objections.
As long as we might consider popular traditions as genuine modern representatives of original heathen religious practices, we seemed justified in using these folkloristic materials with as much confidence as the literary traditions of pagan times. They could even yield something more which the latter only gave by way of exception: some insight into the rites and practices of the heathen religion. A well known example of this kind is to be found in the study of modern agricultural customs, which threw an unexpected light both upon the cult of Nerthus, as Tacitus has ascribed it in his Germania, and even upon the scanty information about the Scandinavian Freyr-cult. The value of folkloristic material, however, has been seriously weakened in late years, by the ever increasing amount of proofs that a great deal of popular tradition is nothing but products of higher civilisation, debased to the level of the common people. So it is quite obvious that a popular tradition, which was once considered as a valuable remnant of old heathen lore, may be of much later origin, even of quite modern extraction.
Translation - Danish Translation by David Folkmann Drost, Sept. 2007: “Bidrag til studiet af Othin, særligt hans relation til landbrugsskikke i moderne folketro”
Når vi ønsker at fastlægge den virkelige betydning af en teutonsk hedensk guddom og måden denne har udviklet sig på igennem tiderne kan vi ikke begrænse os til studiet af literære dokumenter alene, såsom de islandske edda-digte og sagaer, men vi må ligeledes opsøge informationer fra andre kilder. Forskere har været vant til i vid ustrækning, at kunne trække på folkloristiske kilder, såsom folkelige skikke og overtro, i dette henseende. Uomgængelig, som denne metode nok kan være i rekonstruktionen af den tidlige germanske religion, om hvilken de bevarede kilder stort set intet har at sige, er den dog åben overfor nogle alvorlige indvendinger.
Så længe vi kunne antage antage nyere folketraditioner for at være virkelige moderne udtryksformer for de oprindelige hedenske religiøse skikke, syntes vi at være retfærdiggjorte i at bruge disse folkloristiske materialer med samme sikkerhed som de literære overleveringer fra hedensk tid. De kunne endda yderlige bibringe noget, som sidstnævnte kun undtagelsesvis kunne give: Et indblik i den hedenske religions ritualer og skikke. Et velkendt eksempel af denne art kan findes i studiet af moderne landbrugsskikke, som kastede et uventet lys både på Nerthus-kulten, sådan som Tacitus beskrev den i sin Germania, og endda også på den sparsomme viden om den skandinaviske Freyr-kult. Værdien af det folkloristiske materiale er imidlertid blevet alvorligt svækket i de senere år, af den stigende mængde beviser på at en stor del af de folkelige traditioner ikke er andet end produkter af en højere civilisation, trukket ned på det almindelige folks niveau. Det er således åbenlyst at en folkelig tradition som engang blev opfattet som en værdifuld rest af gammel hedensk overlevering, kan være af meget senere, endda ganske moderne oprindelse.
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Years of experience: 19. Registered at ProZ.com: Feb 2007.
I have been working as a freelance translator for two years (since 2005), after finishing my Bachelor's degree in Comparative Religion from Aarhus University, Denmark. I am currently undertaking postgraduate studies in Anthropology and Comparative Religion, while teaching English.
Freelance illustrator and graphics designer since 2006.
Keywords: anthropology, religion, folklore, children's books, fiction, humanities, tourism, art, literature, correspondence. See more.anthropology, religion, folklore, children's books, fiction, humanities, tourism, art, literature, correspondence, business correspondence. See less.
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