19 December 2017

Inventory of other Oera Linda translations

[this post was somewhat edited April, 2023] 

*** for a list of online publications about Oera Linda, go here ***

Mine (read online or buy printed copy/PDF) is the first English translation straight from the original language, as the one by Sandbach (1876) was based on the first Dutch one by Ottema (1872). The Sandbach translation was the basis for most other (non-Dutch/German) ones.

The earlier translations (known to me) that were straight from the original language are:

Dutch:
Ottema - 1872, 1876
Overwijn - 1941, 1951
Jensma - 2006 (1)
De Heer - 2008 (2)
(1) This is the only translation that was based on the assumption that the text is a 19th Century forgery, meant as a joke.
(2) Translation is mostly based on Overwijn but uses unique Yule-font for transcription of the original text.

German:
Wirth - 1933 (some parts were left out)
Menkens - 2013

Norse and improvised English:
Lien - 2013 (web-only)

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Chronological list of Oera Linda translations (known to me)

year author language title publisher
1872/ 1876 J.G. Ottema Dutch Thet Oera Linda Bok H. Kuipers, Leeuwarden (1, 2)
1876 W.R. Sandbach(1) English The Oera Linda Book Trübner & co., London
1933 H. Wirth(2) German Die Ura Linda Chronik Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig
1941/ 1951 J.F. Overwijn Dutch Het Oera Linda Boek N.V. Enkhuizer Courant/ Chefferd/ web-PDF
1963 E. Sturm German Die Oera Linda Handschriften typewriter copy
1983 F.H. Pierce English The Œra Linda Book typewriter copy
1992 U. & J. Hamilton Swedish Oera-Linda : en Fornfrisisk Krönika Cradle Publications
1998 A. Snyman Afrikaans Die Oera Linda boek Vaandel-Uitgewers, Mosselbaai
2004 A. Soldani Italian Oera Linda il libro, pagine di storia dimenticate web-only
2006 G. Jensma Dutch Het Oera Linda-boek Verloren, Hilversum
2007 J. Fermaut(3) French Le livre des Oera Linda selfpublished, Bierne
2008 S. de Heer(4) Dutch Ћet Oera Linda Bok self-published, Amsterdam
2012 A. Pietrykowska Polish Ksiñega Oera Linda Armoryka, Sandomierz
2013 H. Menkens German Die Oera-Linda-Handschriften Lühe-Verlag, Süderbrarup
2013 H.O. Lien Norse/ (English) Oera Linda-boka/ (The Oera Linda Book) web-only
2017 D. Campayo Bustos Spanish Oera Linda - un manuscrito del siglio XIII web-only
2018 Adel Brost (pseudonym) German Oera Linda Buch web-only
2020 Ανωνυμου Greek Το βιβλίο του Oera Linda - Μαρτυρες Της Αντλαντιδας Υπατια Λυδια
2021/ 2022 Jan Ott English Codex Oera Linda (various editions)
oeralinda.org
(1) Translation of Ottema (1872).
(2) Wirth left out some parts.
(3) Translation of Ottema (1876?).
(4) Bewerking van Overwijn (1951).


Note: the English translation that was published as an appendix to "Survivors of the Great Tsunami" (2010/2011) and "Chronicles from pre-Celtic Europe" (renamed third edition, 2014), self-published by A.J. Raubenheimer were edited versions of the Sandbach translation.

Some of the translations in my collection:


Other:


...

28 November 2017

THJANJA - Diana - dienen

Diana as witch on St. Nicholas altar piece
of 1485, Mühlhausen, Thüringen Germany
(full altar and description below)
Diana is well known as the goddess of hunt, the moon, childbirth, women and nature from Roman mythology. Along with Minerva and Vesta, she was one of the three maiden goddesses, who had sworn never to marry. Less known is that in medieval Germany she was considered mistress of witches and still as dea paganorum: pagan goddess, hundreds of years after the Romans had left.

Was Diana introduced into Germany by the Romans, or had she been a Germanic deity or Mother long before the Romans came?


Wikipedia:
Diana was worshipped at a festival on August 13, when King Servius Tullius, himself born a slave, dedicated her temple on the Aventine Hill in the mid-6th century BC. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside the pomerium, meant that Diana's cult essentially remained a foreign one, like that of Bacchus; she was never officially transferred to Rome as Juno was after the sack of Veii. It seems that her cult originated in Aricia, (...)

German Wikipedia (translated):
Nothing was passed down about an initial Diana myth - independent of Greek mythology -, as Diana was identified very early already  and almost completely with the Greek Artemis. The Greek myths were adopted with substitution of the Greek deities by their Roman equivalents.

In the Oera Linda-book, a female deity or divine Mother Thjanja is mentioned along with Frya, Fàsta, Médéa, "and many others" (fragment below). This name also appears many times in the manuscript as verb, meaning to serve, which still has equivalents in several North European languages:

dienen - Dutch, German
tsjinje - Frisian
tjene - Danish, Norwegian
tjäna - Swedish
þjóna, thjóna - Icelandic

Diana by Paul Bergon (1863-1912)
A Dutch female name is Dina (varieties Dine, Diena, Dientje, etc.; perhaps also Tina, Tinka, Tanja, etc.). Origin and meaning are unclear among the specialists. I would suggest that like Diana, it is derived from thiania: dienen.

Oldfrisian dictionaries

Wiarda (1786)
tinia, tyena, thiania - to serve
thianst, thianest - service
thianster - witch (!)

Hettema (1832)
thiania, tjaenje - to serve
thiansta, tjaenst - service, servant
thianster, tjaonster - witch (!)

Richthofen (1840)
thiania, tienia - to serve
thianer, tiener - servant
thianost, thianest, thianst, tienst - service

Note that in OLB the spelling for witch (besides HEX) is "THJONSTER", and no relation to "THJANJA" (to serve) is suggested: [034/15] AS THV THÀN NÉN THJONSTER NE BISTE


Fragment in Oera Linda-book


[132/21]
HWERSA IMMAN EN BYLD MÁKATH ÀFTER ÉNNEN VRSTURVEN ÀND THET LIKT
SÁ LÁWATH HJA THÀT THENE GÁST THES VRSTURVENE THÉR INNE FÁRATH.
THÉRVR HÀVATH HJA ALLE BYLDA VRBURGEN. 

FON FRYA. FÀSTA. MÉDÉA. THJANJA. HELLÉNJA ÀND FÉLO ÔTHERA.

(translation Ott, not yet published:)
When someone makes an image of a dead person and it shows a good likeness, 
they believe that the ghost of the departed resides in it. 
They therefore hide all images 
of Frya, Festa, Medea, Diana, Hellenia and many others.

(translation Sandbach, 1876:)
When they make a statue of a dead person 
they believe that the spirit of the departed enters into it; 
therefore they have hidden their statues 
of Frya, Fâsta, Medea, Thiania, Hellenia, and many others.

(For other fragments with THJANJA used as verb, see post of March 30, 2012.)

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