Bill Bryson said, “Ages are generally pretty incompetent at judging their own worth.” This is why we need to read old books and translated books, says this Dane who lives in New York.
Bill Bryson said, “Ages are generally pretty incompetent at judging their own worth.” This is why we need to read old books and translated books, says this Dane who lives in New York.
I am sad to admit that I’ve never read either Pontoppidan or Lageroff.
The Pontoppidans I knew best are a pair of Danish churchmen (brothers) who wrote the standard Danish/Norwegian explanation of Luther’s Small Catechism, used for generations. I suspect one of them would have been this Pontoppidan’s ancestor.
If you’re wondering what kind of Danish name Pontoppidan is, it isn’t. As was common with learned men of their time, they translated their Danish name, Bybro (town bridge), into Latin.
I was not wondering that, and now that seems humorously weird. So pontoppidan is Latin for town bridge? Language is so curious.
Philip Melanchthon’s name is similar. Melanchthon means black earth, and his birth name was Schwartzerdt.
I would never have discovered my favorite author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, if his works had not been translated into English.