Mikael Holmberg 2017

 

Mikael Holmberg (b. 1961) is originally from Turku, but he moved to Norway as early as in 1978, and works as an illustrator, author and cartoonist.

The translation by Mikael Holmberg is written in the Norwegian bokmål. Most of the people in Norway knows bokmål better than nynorsk (New Norwegian), which was the language that the previous version of the Kalevala had been translated into. This recent translation is in poetic form and, according to the publisher, it is very true to the original text.

In an article in the newspaper Ruijan Kaiku, Mikael Holmberg tells us how the work with translating the Kalevala evolved. As a Swedish speaking schoolboy in Turku, he read the Swedish abridged version of Kalevala and was fascinated about its mystical world where swords spoke symbolically and the heroes seemed to be human divine characters. In 2006 he translated and illustrated the book Kampen om Sampo – historier fra Kalevala (in English: The battle of the Sampo – stories from the Kalevala), which was meant for children and young readers.

A few years later, in 2013, the infrastructure company Lemminkäinen Norway, ordered a book from him which was to be given as a business gift. The book contained Norwegian translations of tales from the Kalevala. This really evoked Holmberg’s enthusiasm for translating the Kalevala. He began working on the translation when he had finished the aforementioned book.

Mikael Holmberg is obviously a very hardworking person: he works at his day job as the editor-in-chief of a cultural journal and at night he works shifts at a children’s home. During the long hours at night, he also translated verses from the Kalevala into Norwegian.

“Sometimes I translated a verse per day, at other times I translated a whole page. During the night shifts I had time to sit and think about the Kalevala. […] It was always there on my mind, when I did other stuff or when I went for a walk with my dog. I had a notebook where I wrote my thoughts”, Holmbergs tells to the Ruijan Kaiku.

It was a challenging and difficult task to find a publisher, because no one really believed that the Kalevala would be a commercial success. Finally, the Orkana publishing company took on the book and the translation was finalised right on time for the centennial celebrations of Finland’s independence.

The cover of Holmberg’s Norwegian Kalevala was created by Gunhild Vegge and Lasse Kolsrud. Later they have continued working with art on the Kalevala theme.

The translation – a rewording

In the Norwegian language there is a difference between translation – oversettelse – and rewording, in other words gjendiktning. The Kalevala by Mikael Holmberg is a rewording. He did strive to follow the original text as closely as possible, but not word-by-word. Instead, he aimed at “taking the reader’s thoughts to the same place as in the original version”.

Journalist Anne Mari Rahkonen Berg compares the linguistic translation by Fliflet from 1967 to Mikael Holmberg’s rewording in Ruijan Kaiku dated November 29, 2017. As Fliflet’s goal was to respect the poetic meter and the linguistic expression of the past, Holmberg’s aim was to ensure that today’s Norwegian reader would be able to grasp the poem and its world. However, Holmberg has kept the alliterations, the parallelism and the regular poetic meter in his interpretation. He does use old-fashioned expressions, but not in the sense that it makes it impossible to understand the text.

“It is up to the reader to choose which translation he or she prefers to read during Finland’s Jubilee”, Rahkonen Berg concludes her review. Now there are two well motivated alternatives in the Norwegian language.

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Larsen, Karoliina: “Kansalliseepos Kalevala ilmestyi bokmåliksi“. Ruijan Kaiku 8.10.2017.
Rahkonen Berg, Anne Mari: “Norske Kalevala-gjendiktninger“. Ruijan Kaiku 29.11.2017.