Greenland (Denmark) / All works
Tale
Myter og Sagn fra Grønland
Not translated into English
Knud Rasmussen · 1921
Synopsis
Myths and legends of Greenland: a vast collection of Greenlandic traditional tales, gathered by Knud Rasmussen. The myths explain the origin of the sun, the moon and the stars, why nature is what it is and why animals look the way they do. Rasmussen collected the texts directly from the storytellers, thanks to his command of Greenlandic, had them written down when he could, then translated them into Danish, allowing himself as few liberties as possible.
Context
Published in three volumes from 1921 to 1925, a fourth having been planned, the collection applies a method that Rasmussen took up again for the Fifth Thule Expedition: sustained, methodical collecting. William Thalbitzer, in 1934, saw it as a precious source, above all for the study of the Inuit, while noting that the translations are difficult to check against the originals. Most of the Greenlandic myths known today owe their collection to Rasmussen, and this body of material has fed anthologies as far afield as Czech.
Who it is for
A collection of myths in three volumes, in Danish; no complete French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Thalbitzer hailed Rasmussen's work as first-rate sources for Eskimology.
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