Heðin Brú

[Stewart]

He?in Br? (August 17, 1901 in Sk?lav?k-May 18, 1987 in T?rshavn) was the penname of Hans Jacob Jacobsen, a Faroese novelist and translator.

He?in Br? is considered to be the most important Faroese writer of his generation and is known for his fresh and ironic style. His novel, Fe?gar ? fer? (The Old Man and His Sons), was chosen as the Book of the twentieth century by the Faroese.

RELATED LINKS


He?in Br? on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He%C3%B0in_Br%C3%BA)

[Stewart]

I've made this post on because Br? was someone I chanced upon months ago when wondering if there was any Faroese literature in translation. I didn't do a good job of finding any, although his name featured heavily in the investigation. Now, having browsed Telegram Books' 2009 catalogue (http://www.telegrambooks.com/archives/gfx/Tel%20Cat%202009%20May.pdf) (PDF Format) I see they are releasing The Old Man And His Sons (http://www.telegrambooks.com/archives/the_old_man_and_his_sons/) in March, in a translation by John F. West.

[Mirabell]

He's translated into german, too (albeit from the danish). and what's more we have some other writers as well. For instance J?gvan Isaksen, who apparently writes crime novels.

for bru's major novel, wiki gives all past translations:


Fe?gar ? fer?. T?rshavn: Var?in (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Var%C3%B0in), 1940 (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940) - 160 S. (Roman. mindestens 5 Auflagen)

Fe?gar ? fer?; ?bersetzung ins Isl?ndische von A?alsteinn Sigmundsson. Reykjav?k: V?kings?tg?fan, 1941 - 208 S.
Fattigmands?re; ?bersetzung ins D?nische von Gunnv? und Povl Sk?rup; Vorwort von William Heinesen (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Heinesen). Kopenhagen: Gyldendal, 1962 - 146 S.
Fattigfolk p? ferde; ?bersetzung ins Norwegische von Ivar Eskeland; Vorwort von William Heinesen. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1964 - 152 S.
Des armen Mannes Ehre; aus dem D?nischen ?bertragen von Alfred Anderau. Mit Illustrationen von Camille Corti und einem Nachwort von William Heinesen (S. 221-223). Z?rich: Flamberg, 1966 - 223 S.
n?sarnarsu?ng?k / nugterissok; ?bersetzung aus dem D?nischen ins Gr?nl?ndische von J?rgen Fleischer. Godth?b: Det Gr?nlandske Forlag, 1967 - 128 S.
The old man and his sons; ?bersetzung ins Englische und Vorwort von John F. West (http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_F._West&action=edit&redlink=1); Zeichnungen von B?r?ur J?kupsson (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1r%C3%B0ur_J%C3%A1kupsson). New York: Paul S. Eriksson, 1970 - 203 S. ISBN 0839784120 (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spezial:ISBN-Suche/0839784120)
Honor biedaka; ?bersetzung ins Polnische von Henryk Anders und Maria Krysztofiak [1] (http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~ifguam/krysztofiak.htm). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 1970 - 154 S.
Ketil und die Wale; ?bertragung aus dem D?nischen von Ernst Walter unter Hinzuziehung des f?r?ischen Originals. Mit einer Nachbemerkung des ?bersetzers (S. 187-192). Rostock: Hinstorff, 1971 - 192 S.
Fattigmans heder; ?bersetzung ins Schwedische von Birgitta Hylin; Umschlagsbild von William Heinesen. Stockholm: Bokf?rlaget Pan/Norstedts, 1977 - 137 S.

[Mirabell]

Here's a link to the German wiki listing faroese writers

Kategorie:Literatur (F?r?isch ? Wikipedia (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Literatur_(F%C3%A4r%C3%B6isch))

My guess is that the fact that they have a German wiki entry means they have been translated at one point or another though I can't say, of course. don't have the time to check just now.

[Eric]

A little more about He?in Br?.

You will remember from the Faroese thread that I mentioned the name of the Groningen postgraduate student Roald van Elswijk and also, on another thread, the magazine "Scandinavian Newsletter", published by the University of Groningen.

Van Elswijk has written a short article in that newsletter, specifically about a new book about Br? by J?gvan Isaksen, whom Mirabell mentioned here, back in September. Isaksen was the Faroese editor of the now defunct annual publication "Nordic Literature"

The Br? biography is called "Loystur ?r fj?trum. Um skaldskapin hj? He?ini Br?" (2006) which means "Released from Fetters. About the Works of He?in Br?". It hasn't yet been translated into any other language, not even Danish. But the fact it exists, and is evidently meant as an introduction for the layman, not a scholarly treatise, is encouraging. So we must wait until some eager Scot (it's often Scots that are Scandinavia oriented in Britain) decides to translate it.

Van Elswijk also mentions in passing that two of Br?'s novel were published together in one volume in Dutch translation, but that the Dutch translator (working via Danish, no doubt) had thought that Br? was a Swedish woman, rather than a Faroese man!

*

I learnt from the Wikipedia, incidentally, that unlike in Icelandic, the Faroese "?" is not pronounced like the English "th" as in "this", but becomes either a "w" sound or a "y" sound between vowels. And that "?" is pronounced "oo", as in "brew". Which suggests that his name is pronounced "HEY-in BREW", although I have never heard Faroese spoken, so I am just following the rules.

[hdw]

A little more about He?in Br?.
I learnt from the Wikipedia, incidentally, that unlike in Icelandic, the Faroese "?" is not pronounced like the English "th" as in "this", but becomes either a "w" sound or a "y" sound between vowels. And that "?" is pronounced "oo", as in "brew". Which suggests that his name is pronounced "HEY-in BREW", although I have never heard Faroese spoken, so I am just following the rules.

If you heard someone speaking Faroese on the bus you probably wouldn't even recognise it as Scandinavian. It's closest to Icelandic, but Icelanders can't understand it, and if you know some Icelandic, as I do, it's actually more of a hindrance than a help, because you make false assumptions about how Faroese words will be pronounced.

In Icelandic, the ? is always pronounced as a hard th (like in 'that', 'this' etc.). In Faroese, as you point out, it has several different values. For example, the Faroese word for 'journalist' is bla?ma?ur, pronounced bleh-uh-meh-uh-voor. So it can be silent, or it can be a v.

The letter a is usually pronounced eh, and ?v- isn't oav, it's ehv, so that the male given name J?gvan is Yehg-van.

? and ?y are like the German ?, and ki- is ch as in church, so upptiki? 'taken' is pronounced ip-t?-chee.

And this fascinates me - I've discovered a seeming phonological link with Scottish Gaelic, because an s/sh is inserted into the consonant cluster -rt-, so that e.g. ertu 'are you' is pronounced roughly ershtu. Same in Gaelic, where ceart 'sure' is kyarst. I don't know of a phenomenon like this in any other Scandinavian language.

There are some felicitous moments in studying Faroese vocabulary. The climate there is pretty notorious, which will be why they have a single word ?tfarandi meaning 'possible to go outside' (usually preceded by ikki 'eechee', meaning 'not'). And the word for a severe storm is ?dn, which I like to think is related to the High God.

For a country consisting of 18 small islands with about 50,000 people, Faroe punches well above its weight in literary terms, both in the Faroese and Danish languages. One of the leading novelists is William Heinesen, who wrote in Danish, and I'm currently reading his The Lost Musicians (1971, American-Scandinavian Foundation and Twayne Publishers, transl. by Erik J. Friis).

Harry

[Eric]

Glad to see you back, Harry. I seem to think you've been away for a while. But my query-comment is even older than your absence.

Anyway, as for Heady Brew and his Fair O'Ease, the use of the "?" is indeed intriguing. It could have been those Danes who influenced them, because compared with Swedish-Norwegian, Danish is relatively distant. Or maybe it was the other way around - a few infiltrating Faroese in key jobs in Copenhagen swung and tilted the whole spectrum of Danish pronunciation (though actually is was more likely to have been German influence).

A population of 50,000 is certainly in impressively small one for supporting a living and organised literature, when you think that there are vast tracts of the world, populated by tens of millions of people, who are quite incapable of producing a few novels and poetry collections. Icelandic itself, with a mere 300,000 inhabitants is already a record, on account of the boost given by the sagas, no doubt, but the Faroese do take the biscuit for smallness-solidity.

[hdw]

Glad to see you back, Harry. I seem to think you've been away for a while.


In Bath, as it happens, not taking the waters but certainly inspecting them as well as viewing the Georgian town and taking open-top bus tours. Never been in that part of the world before, and it was worth the all-day journey on 3 trains from Edinburgh to get there. We like to get out of Auld Scotia's capital for a break at this time of year, a relic of the days when my wife got the October school holiday week and we always sought pastures new.

On our return, I had to make up for lost time with my various translation projects.

Harry

[Eric]

Bath. I've only been there once, and that was about 40 years ago. But between then and now is shorter than between the 18th century and our epoch. So I imagine that it is much the same as when I saw it. An open-top bus tour sounds nice. Did you bump into any Faroese on the street? Because some nationals, such as Icelanders and Estonians, tend to turn up all over the shop.

I thought out of sheer sillliness to see whether He?in Br? had been to Bath. I didn't find anything there, but found out that there is a rune stone in Sm?land where someone says he laid his brother to rest in a stone coffin in Bath, England.

Gunnkell setti stein ?enna eptir Gunnar, f??ur sinn, son Hr??a. Helgi lag?i hann ? stein?r?, br??ur sinn, ? Englandi ? B??um.

See (under the N?bbelesholm entry):

Runeinnskrifter fra Smland (http://www.arild-hauge.com/se-runeinnskrifter-smaaland.htm)

It's nice to know that they got around in those days too.

[hdw]

Bath. I've only been there once, and that was about 40 years ago. But between then and now is shorter than between the 18th century and our epoch. So I imagine that it is much the same as when I saw it. An open-top bus tour sounds nice. Did you bump into any Faroese on the street? Because some nationals, such as Icelanders and Estonians, tend to turn up all over the shop.

I thought out of sheer sillliness to see whether He?in Br? had been to Bath. I didn't find anything there, but found out that there is a rune stone in Sm?land where someone says he laid his brother to rest in a stone coffin in Bath, England.

Gunnkell setti stein ?enna eptir Gunnar, f??ur sinn, son Hr??a. Helgi lag?i hann ? stein?r?, br??ur sinn, ? Englandi ? B??um.

See (under the N?bbelesholm entry):

Runeinnskrifter fra Smland (http://www.arild-hauge.com/se-runeinnskrifter-smaaland.htm)

It's nice to know that they got around in those days too.

Funnily enough we passed a group of Swedes one night, but were more aware of Japanese.

Harry

[hdw]

Funnily enough we passed a group of Swedes one night, but were more aware of Japanese.

Harry

As this thread is supposed to be about the writer He?in Br?, here's a photo of him along with some other Faroese writers (Christian Matras was also a well-known academic).

Harry

[Eric]

Despite his jolly ethnic pseudonym, He?in Br? does look the formal academic to a t. You always expect ethnic chappies from smaller cultures to have white hair down to their shoulders and a manic stare. This is not quite the case here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Faroe_stamp_165_hedin_bru.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Faroe_stamp_165_hedin_bru.jpg)

Brylcreem ahoy! Then again, if you're a real writer, as opposed to an ethnic poseur, you don't need phoney trappings.