Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2018, Side 60

The word was Skálholt and Skálholt was the word
60The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2018Culture
The Never-Ending Saga of
Icelandic Bible-Translations
Skálholt’s bible exhibition unveils Iceland’s eternal struggle
with translating God’s word throughout the centuries
Words: Noemi Ehrat Photo: Art Bicnick
While Iceland might not be famous
for being hardcore religious, Ice-
landers, or at least the family of
the late reverend Sigurður Páls-
son, still appreciate their bibles.
Fourteen different bible editions
that belonged to the reverend are
currently on display at the bishop’s
seat Skálholt in south Iceland.
Upon arriving at Skálholt, you
might confuse the church itself
or the Skálholtsskóli, which now
houses a restaurant and a hotel, for
the site of the bible exhibition. Yet
this is not where the fourteen reli-
gious texts are to be found, as you’ll
find out once you’ve stumbled into
the wrong places and as the per-
son guarding the entrance to the
church will also tell you. Instead,
there’s a rather small turf house,
Þorláksbúð, easily overlooked in
the middle of the other two bigger
buildings, that houses the exhibit.
A guide, appropriately dressed up
as a cleric, will then tell you all
you’ve ever wanted to know about
the history of the holy scripture in
Icland.
Bible hero
The exhibit displays bibles that
came into the possession of the
late reverend Sigurður Pálsson
of Skálholt, because his family is
convinced that he would have ap-
preciated the rare books being pub-
licly exhibited instead of rotting
away in some private cellar. The
bibles are arranged in six display
cases of glass, starting with the
oldest printed book in Icelandic,
a new testament translation from
1540. The brave soul who dared to
translate the new testament from
Latin into Icelandic was Oddur
Gottskálksson. He is said to have
worked on the translation in a cow-
shed, as the place not only offered
him secrecy from the Bishop but
also more warmth than anywhere
else. Imagine the smell, though – he
must truly have been a brave man.
Whale oil bible?
It also becomes clear how closely
intertwined the history of the bi-
ble and the history of Iceland and
the Icelandic language are. That
first translation, for example, also
marks the beginning of the teeny
movement we now know as the ref-
ormation, as well as the advent of
Icelandic independence. However,
not all bibles have such a glorious
background. “The Hendersons-Bi-
ble from 1813 is also known as the
screwed-up bible,” guide Hilmar
Bjarni tells us. “This is because
the language is considered really
bad. The book of lamentations, for
instance, was accidentally trans-
lated as ‘harmagrútur’ instead of
‘harmagrátur.’” What might ap-
pear as an insignificant spelling
error only language purists would
have an issue with actually changes
the meaning of phrases from “the
Lamentations of Jeremiah” to “the
tragically unfiltered fish oil of Jer-
emiah.”
The feminist bible
Another interesting ancient book
on display is the Heiðna Bíblia or
heathen bible. For some weird reli-
gious reasons, the British Bible As-
sociation wasn’t too happy with the
content, though. Thus, they tried
to buy the copies back and destroy
them, which makes the book on
display even more valuable. Fur-
thermore, even bible translations
published as recently as 2007 ap-
parently simply can’t exist with-
out a juicy controversy: The 21st
century bible, or, in-
clusive bible, tried the
impossible: to please
all readers. “It’s some-
times also called the
feminist bible, because
they mainly tried to
fix gender-issues”, ex-
plains Hilmar Bjarni.
“It’s actually just trying
to translate the original
Greek and Aramaic texts more ac-
curately,” Hilmar Bjarni says. “They
used to translate the original word
for “family” with “brothers”, for
example. This was re-translated
as “brothers and sisters” in this
edition.” This, of course, didn’t
make the more traditional bible-
enthusiasts too happy. However,
the translators even managed to
displease feminist and other more
progressive groups, as they decided
to keep “more iconic parts” in the
traditional language. Hence, the
moral of the story is: Don’t try to
please everybody, you will infuriate
people anyway.
Almost original building
Once you’ve studied the bundles of
parchment closely, you might want
to take a look at the turf house it-
self. “It’s a pretty accurate replica of
actual turf houses,” Hilmar Bjarni
explains. “They used ancient Nor-
wegian wood-working techniques
they would’ve actu-
ally been using back
in those days.” Hilmar
Bjarni admits, however,
that the measurements
are slightly adapted so
that modern people
can walk comfortably
around in an upright
position. Also, there
are no sheep to be found
inside, which they used to keep in
order to stay warm – too bad, some
livestock would’ve made the experi-
ence even more authentic, as bible
hero Oddur Gottskálksson himself
used to appreciate their warmth.
“The
Hendersons-
Bible from
1813 is also
known as the
screwed-up
bible.”