Ruotsalaiset lukukirjat ja niiden suomennokset tiedon välittäjinä

Authors

• Paula Rossi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61200/mikael.145945

Abstract

At the beginning of the last century two Swedish authors, Selma Lagerlöf and Sven Hedin were commissioned to write textbooks to be used in elementary schools. Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was asked to write a textbook on geography and local area studies. She wrote Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Swerige (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils), a book about the travels of a boy and wild geese across Sweden. The first part of the book was published in 1906 and the second part in 1907. The Finnish translations of the books by Juhani Aho, Peukaloisen retket villihanhien kanssa (part I and II), were published in 1906–1908. Later on new translations were made of the book. In this article I will discuss the Finnish translation of the book that was published in 1994 (the 11th edition).

Sven Hedin (1865–1952), a world-famous explorer, led several expeditions to Middle-Asia. He was commissioned to write a book on his expeditions to the East. The original textbook was called Från pol till pol (Part I, 1911) and the Finnish translation of it, which was made by V. Hämeen-Anttila, Navalta Navalle (Part I, 1911).

Both original works are textbooks, readers and travelogues. Their function is to provide information for the school children about their own and foreign  countries. This study was conducted to find out whether the Finnish translations have maintained a similar role as conveyors of knowledge and how the translators have handled the informative material of the original texts.