Danish or Norwegian help for a book about vikings

[Cecile]

I tried without success to find the original title of Les Vikings. I have an old edition of the book, without much information, and I couldn't find any information on the Internet about the author Olaf Madsen.

I suppose he's Danish, or maybe Norwegian, but it seems to be a very common name, so my search on google was fruitless.

Does someone know this author or this book? Or maybe where to look for information about him?

[Kiri]

It looks like these were published all in the same year or so in three different languages. It is obvious that the English is a translation. The French version looks to be the possible original (despite the author's name) AHA! I found the translator for the German Edition [Peter Aschner] and have added that.

I also located this
"Madsen, Olaf. Die Welt der Wikinger. Mchn., Bln., Herbig (1976). gr.-8°, 141(3) S., mit zahlr., tls. farb. Abb., OPp. m. OU." in a german site
translation: (rough)
Madsen, Olaf. The World of the Vikings. Mchn., Bln., Herbig (1976). gr-8 °, 141 (3) pages, with numerous illustrations., tls. color illustrations, OPP. m. OU.
source: http://www.marelibri.ru/t/main/330001...
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Do you have a reason to think it was published in Danish or Norwegian first?

The Norwegian for "the Vikings" is "Vikingene"
if you use the English title it would be "Verden av Vikingene"
The danish would be very similar but I am not versed enough to try even a rough translation with it.

However I'm not pulling titles in Norwegian with his name anywhere. If you have good cause to think it was published in one of those languages I can contact someone to do a hard archive check.

It seems the name Madsen is of Danish extraction, but also has an English (England) branch. Gotta love migration! =)

[Cecile]

I only have the name O. Madsen on my copy, but I found the first name on the web after a long search. It's during this search that I found out that there are loads of websites in Danish with this name in it, and also a lot in Norwegian (but less).

But as you said, he could be anywhere, especially with Viking ancestors. :)

[RB]

Assuming that the "Olaf Madsen" is Danish in origin (very common last name, first name is a bit rare), then the Danish translation of the German title would be: "Vikingernes verden"

I can't find anything about Olaf Madsen, and I'm not familiar with the title. Sorry that I couldn't help more.

[Cecile]

Kiri wrote: "... The French version looks to be the possible original ..."

I don't know if it's the case, the indications on my copy are really sparse:

"Texte de O. Madsen" (text of O. Madsen)
"Minerva/France-Loisirs" (the publisher)
"© Editions Minerva, S.A. Genève, 1976
Printer, Industria Gráfica, S.A.
Tuset, 19 Barcelona
San Vicente dels Horts 1976
Depósito legal B. 31351-1976
Printed in Spain"

There's nothing else.
As you can see, a Swiss publisher (Minerva) associated with a French one (France-Loisirs) to publish a book printed in Spain, by an obscure author of unknown origin.

So maybe you're right, maybe he's French or Swiss, or at the time they didn't bother to put the copyright for the original version.

We probably shouldn't waste any more time on this one, there are so many books needing our attention, but sometimes I can get lost into details.

Thanks a lot for your help anyway!

[Cecile]

Rita wrote: "... I can't find anything about Olaf Madsen, and I'm not familiar with the title. Sorry that I couldn't help more."

Thank you Rita.

Don't worry, as far as we know he could be from anywhere in fact.
These pre-ISBN editions can sometimes really be troublesome!