Translation request
Apr. 4th, 2012 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalkerI have a couple of words which need translating, and I'm hoping someone can help out. I only had a year of high school Latin and no medieval Scandinavian language instruction, which makes this somewhat difficult to do well.
First up: conjux delectissima. This is how it's written, though I think it should be dilectissima. Anyway, I think it translates literally as "most beloved wife," but the literal translation isn't always the right translation. In context, I think the writer might be using it to mean "concubine," but I don't know whether this is an accurate historical usage. It could be the author is interpreting it through marriage customs of his own time and not reflecting the way it would have been understood in the 10th century (how they understood the position of the woman, that is; I don't know whether any Vikings would have used the term then). I haven't had any luck using the Perseus Project tools to figure it out.
Second: fylgikama. The author uses this as a synonym for the first term and gives it as a result of the "Danish marriage" (as opposed to a Church-approved one, and simultaneous with a Church marriage in this instance).
The text I'm reading was written in English probably between the 1930s and 1960s by an American guy who was using sources published in English (and occasionally French) from around the 1880s onward, plus translations of the sagas published during those decades. So if usage changed a lot over time, that's the era's usage he would have been familiar with.
First up: conjux delectissima. This is how it's written, though I think it should be dilectissima. Anyway, I think it translates literally as "most beloved wife," but the literal translation isn't always the right translation. In context, I think the writer might be using it to mean "concubine," but I don't know whether this is an accurate historical usage. It could be the author is interpreting it through marriage customs of his own time and not reflecting the way it would have been understood in the 10th century (how they understood the position of the woman, that is; I don't know whether any Vikings would have used the term then). I haven't had any luck using the Perseus Project tools to figure it out.
Second: fylgikama. The author uses this as a synonym for the first term and gives it as a result of the "Danish marriage" (as opposed to a Church-approved one, and simultaneous with a Church marriage in this instance).
The text I'm reading was written in English probably between the 1930s and 1960s by an American guy who was using sources published in English (and occasionally French) from around the 1880s onward, plus translations of the sagas published during those decades. So if usage changed a lot over time, that's the era's usage he would have been familiar with.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-05 05:35 am (UTC)A very good example is Svein Estridson, King of Denmark in the 11th century who viewed himself as a good Christian but Adam of Bremen disagreed because he had too many wives. Paraphrased:
Svein: King Solomon had umpteen.
Adam: But he was a great king.
Svein: And your point is?
Adam finally took the proper line, which is that Christians had only one, and made him get rid of all but one. This caused him considerable anguish because Adam wouldn't let him keep the one he loved best as she was too closely related to him.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-08 08:23 pm (UTC)Would social status or something else have been a factor in deciding which wife gets the Danish marriage and which gets the Church marriage, or was it whoever was first, or was it more an externally imposed view of which was which and the people involved didn't differentiate as much?