Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Síða 69

THE DANISH SOCIETY
63
more it seems probable that these subjects, and the problems which
they involve, will attract especial attention in a post-war world
likely to concentrate largely on the problems of everyday life
and work.
These publications are written in Danish, because they are
principally intended to form part of the equipment of the Soci-
ety’s own agents, and because, apart from these, they address
themselves chiefly to other Danes, or foreigners with a knowledge
of Danish, who are in a position to spread a knowledge of Den-
mark in other countries by their writings or by other methods of
publicity.
It is, however, presumed that in time it will also become ne-
cessary to bring out modified versions of the text-books in other
languages than Danish. What subjects will especially interest the
publics of the various countries, it is not at present possible to
determine. While it is thus not feasible at the present moment
to decide which of the text-books are to be translated into one
or more of the world languages, it seems likely that it may be
found desirable to transcribe some of them into less widely dif-
fused languages, for the benefit of countries whose populations
do not speak one of the former. This may even be the case with
textbooks which the Society does not decide to issue in one of
the better-known languages. In such cases the translation will
thus be made directly into the language in question, without the
intermediary of a world language.
Reference has already been made to the eight-volume work
entitled Danish Civilization in 1940. The book has had a large
domestic sale — 10,000 copies have already been disposed of —
but one of the motives of the Society in preparing it was also to
provide a work which would contribute to spread a knowledge
of Denmark abroad. The 138 writers who have contributed to
the book have given succinct surveys of a large number of sub-
jects within the following spheres: Danish geography, the Danish
people, Danish politics, the Government services, the administra-
tion of justice, health services, social services and welfare work,
technology, trade and industry, religion, popular education, sci-
ence and scholarship, the arts, the theatre, literature, sport, the
Faeroes and Greenland, and Danish foreign relations. The work
constitutes, in fact, an excellent supplement to the text-books:
while the object of the latter is to give accounts of a number of
selected subjects of special interest to the foreign reader, the