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The Viking Road to Byzantium
The Viking Road to
- GenresHistory
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1976
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About the author
H.R. Ellis Davidson
37 books64 followersHilda Roderick Ellis Davidson was an English antiquarian and academic, writing in particular on Germanic paganism and Celtic paganism.
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January 12, 2025
Medieval language pros: proving that global networking wasn't just a LinkedIn invention, but a thousand-year-old art form.
The Griekspoor, or the road from the Varangians to the Greeks, gave a strong impetus to the cultivation of transnational ties and the diffusion of technology. Merchants sailing from distant places were called 'overseas guests', and interpreters were there to help them navigate in the multilanguage environment. This cross-cultural communication enriched northern and eastern nations. What about interpreters? Find out in the accounts quoted in the book.
*A Viking merchant and a translator walk into a bar. One negotiates goods; the other negotiates context - same technology, different complexity.*
The cultural exchange across the northern and southern nations in the Early Middle Ages led to the creation of many literary sources, from sagas to chronicles, which are examined in this book, along with eyewitness accounts, runic inscriptions, and folklore from the period when the Byzantine Empire was the dominant commercial, religious and, technological center of ancient civilization in this part of the world.
Translators and interpreters played an important role in this historically significant transition. The intense multilingual exchange in the eastern territories around 1041 is documented through the following accounts:
"The complex of languages and cultures south of Novgorod was indeed such as to make it essential that a party of merchants voyaging south should have good interpreters with them. This is clear also from Ibn Fadlan's account of his long journey from Baghdad up to the Volga to Bulghar, and again from an episode in the Old Russian life of St Antonius; this saint in the early 12th century was said to have met a Greek merchant in Novgorod who spoke Latin, Greek, and Russian; he found that the man was a Hellenized Greek from the Crimea who had learned Russian throughout commercial contacts with the northern zones."
The records of Princess Olga’s (who, by the way, took the Christian name of Helena just like the Roman empress Saint Helena - nice diplomatic move!) arrival in Constantinople to be baptized also show the substantial sums of money given to interpreters in the context of the Rus mission:
(...) Afterwards all received gifts of money, there is mention of Helga's nephew, 8 of her 'close companions', ...her priest Gregory and two interpreters; also the men of her son Svyatoslav ...and the interpreter of the Princess. The amounts given ranged to three miliaresia each to the attendants..."
So the next time you think translation is about words, remember that these ancient interpreters were the first diplomats to transform "lost in translation" into a "global reach" - one miliaresia at a time!
The Griekspoor, or the road from the Varangians to the Greeks, gave a strong impetus to the cultivation of transnational ties and the diffusion of technology. Merchants sailing from distant places were called 'overseas guests', and interpreters were there to help them navigate in the multilanguage environment. This cross-cultural communication enriched northern and eastern nations. What about interpreters? Find out in the accounts quoted in the book.
*A Viking merchant and a translator walk into a bar. One negotiates goods; the other negotiates context - same technology, different complexity.*
The cultural exchange across the northern and southern nations in the Early Middle Ages led to the creation of many literary sources, from sagas to chronicles, which are examined in this book, along with eyewitness accounts, runic inscriptions, and folklore from the period when the Byzantine Empire was the dominant commercial, religious and, technological center of ancient civilization in this part of the world.
Translators and interpreters played an important role in this historically significant transition. The intense multilingual exchange in the eastern territories around 1041 is documented through the following accounts:
"The complex of languages and cultures south of Novgorod was indeed such as to make it essential that a party of merchants voyaging south should have good interpreters with them. This is clear also from Ibn Fadlan's account of his long journey from Baghdad up to the Volga to Bulghar, and again from an episode in the Old Russian life of St Antonius; this saint in the early 12th century was said to have met a Greek merchant in Novgorod who spoke Latin, Greek, and Russian; he found that the man was a Hellenized Greek from the Crimea who had learned Russian throughout commercial contacts with the northern zones."
The records of Princess Olga’s (who, by the way, took the Christian name of Helena just like the Roman empress Saint Helena - nice diplomatic move!) arrival in Constantinople to be baptized also show the substantial sums of money given to interpreters in the context of the Rus mission:
(...) Afterwards all received gifts of money, there is mention of Helga's nephew, 8 of her 'close companions', ...her priest Gregory and two interpreters; also the men of her son Svyatoslav ...and the interpreter of the Princess. The amounts given ranged to three miliaresia each to the attendants..."
So the next time you think translation is about words, remember that these ancient interpreters were the first diplomats to transform "lost in translation" into a "global reach" - one miliaresia at a time!
Displaying 1 of 1 review