Muriel Press

Muriel Annie Caroline Press (née Hoare, 1867 – 1937) was an English translator who published the first translations of Laxdæla saga and Færeyinga saga into English.

Frontispiece of Press' 1899 translation of Laxdæla Saga

Life

She was born in London on 22 February 1867, the eldest of seven children of Sir Samuel Hoare, 1st baronet, and his wife Katherine Louisa, née Hart.^[1] Her brother was the politician Samuel John Gurney Hoare. In 1896 she married Edward Payne Press of Clifton.^[2] By 1903 they were living in Bristol.^[3]

Translations

In 1899 she translated Laxdæla saga into English with the help of 'a competent Icelander' (Eiríkr Magnússon),^[4] who revised the Icelandic text.^[5] This was the first complete English translation of the saga, which had been popularised in Britain by William Morris' poem 'The Lovers of Gudrun.'^[6][7] It had minimal critical apparatus but proved influential, being republished by Everyman in 1906.^[8]

In 1934 she also published the first translation into English of Færeyinga saga.^[9]

References

1. Hoare, Edward (1883). Some Account of the Early History and Genealogy, with Pedigrees from 1330, Unbroken to the Present Time, of the Families of Hore and Hoare: With All Their Branches : ... with Anecdotes ... of the Principal Persons Mentioned. A.R. Smith. p. 40.
2. Lodge, Edmund (1907). The Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage & Companionage of the British Empire for 1907. Kelly's Directories. p. 965.
3. Fiske, Willard (1903). Mímir: Icelandic Institutions, with Addresses. MCMIII. M. Truelsen. p. 42.
4. France, Peter; Haynes, Kenneth (23 February 2006). The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English:: Volume 4: 1790-1900. Oxford University Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-19-924623-6.
5. "Laxdæla Saga Translated from the Icelandic". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
6. Parergon. Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1971. p. 26.
7. Parker, Joanne; Wagner, Corinna (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism. Oxford University Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-19-966950-9.
8. Kunz, Keneva (1994). Retellers of Tales: An Evaluation of English Translations of Laxdæla Saga. University of Iceland Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-9979-9011-4-3.
9. Holm, Bill (1 August 2010). The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland. Milkweed Editions. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-57131-828-2.