Stones that Heal and Even Resurrect the Dead: Translation into English, French and Spanish of the Noun Lyfsteinn in two Old Norse Texts («Kormáks saga» and «Göngu-Hrólfs saga»)

Abstract

The Old Norse noun lyfsteinn, which originally referred to a magic stone of healing virtue, has not always been transcribed in the same way. In that sense, it could have been mixed up with the Modern Icelandic form lífsteinn, which is especially used in folklore to refer to a stone with the power to give life. The different ways of transcribing the noun and its different interpretations have had consequences in the decisions that translators have made when they have needed to select a translation equivalent in their target languages. This paper analyses the connections between the graphic variation of the noun lyfsteinn and the translations of two important texts from the medieval saga corpus: Kormáks saga and Göngu-Hrólfs saga. Three widely internationally spoken languages are taken into account: English, French and Spanish.