{"id":15220,"date":"2012-11-10T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T04:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/?p=15220\/"},"modified":"2017-01-21T01:04:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T01:04:26","slug":"17th-century-war-story-to-be-translated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/17th-century-war-story-to-be-translated\/","title":{"rendered":"17th century war story to be translated"},"content":{"rendered":"

That Danish (or Norwegian) fighting men have ever fought in Ireland will come as a surprise to most people.<\/p>\n

But they have actually done it twice. First as a wave of Viking attackers more than a thousand years ago, second as a contingent in the employ of the Dutch usurper William of Orange who was made King of Britain as William III.<\/p>\n

Now, a team of historians and Latinists from the University of Copenhagen is translating and editing an account by a private soldier and former University of Copenhagen student, Andreas Claudianus, who fought under William in the Danish mercenary army in Ireland. <\/p>\n

Objective account<\/h2>\n

Claudianus was a Norwegian soldier in a regiment lent by the Danish-Norwegian King Christian V to King William III.<\/p>\n

According to Kjeld Galster, an ex-army officer and a PhD in military history, Claudianus, as a foreign mercenary, had no stake in praising the command of King William, thereby giving the account objectivity.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThis chap doesn\u2019t write to please King William, he writes, if anything, to praise Danish arms,\u00ab he explains to the University Post. <\/p>\n

Soldier was poor, did not finish studies<\/h2>\n

The Latin text, which Kjeld Galster and his two colleagues Morten Aagaard Olsen and Rasmus Wichmann are editing and translating into English, has not been referenced in many other historical works. It offers a new insight into a war that later helped define Irish and British history.<\/p>\n

After the war in Ireland, Claudianus came to Denmark and started as a student of theology at the University of Copenhagen. But the studies didn\u2019t go well for him \u2013 maybe he couldn\u2019t afford them – and he died as a poor teacher on the island of Fyn. <\/p>\n

What has made his name go down in history is the account that he finished in 1717. \u00bbHe originally intended it to be a history of Ireland, but instead it took the form of an account of the Williamite campaigns of 1689-91,\u00ab explains Kjeld Galster.<\/p>\n

See a gallery of the text and the Irish battlefields here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Royal dedication<\/h2>\n

The flowery six-page Latin dedication to the Danish-Norwegian king, at time of publication Frederik IV, is a text worthy of examination in itself. <\/p>\n

\u00bbPerhaps Claudianus was hoping to get some money out of his work, but as far as we know, he never got anything for this,\u00ab explains Kjeld Halster.<\/p>\n

So what on earth were Danish troops doing fighting a war between rival royal houses on the island of Ireland?<\/p>\n

King needed cash<\/h2>\n

According to Kjeld Galster, it was mainly about cash. <\/p>\n

\u00bbThe Danish King had militarily won a war against Sweden \u2013 though France had prevented him from cashing in the dividend – and he didn\u2019t want to let his army go home until he had recouped his financial losses. He started negotiations with William to lease out 10,000 men.\u00ab<\/p>\n

In the end, 7,000 troops of cavalry and infantry crossed the North Sea, then the moors of the north of England, before embarking again to cross for Ireland. The regiment fought at the Battle of the Boyne, all the way through to the more decisive Battle of Aughrim.<\/p>\n

No ideological distortion<\/h2>\n

The Williamite wars later took on propaganda significance for the struggle between Protestant and Catholic, Crown and Parliament. But Claudianus\u2019 account seems to be free of all bias.<\/p>\n

\u00bbThere is no ideological distortion of the facts, as far as I can see,\u00ab says Kjeld Galster, admitting that this, his conclusion, is yet based on a thin foundation. Another historian, John Jordan, believes that Claudianus indeed had religious prejudice, yet gave a fair account of the fighting.<\/p>\n

Either way, Claudianus\u2019 account simply \u00bbdescribes the life of a private soldier, and with comments on his superiors\u2019 orders,\u00ab Kjeld Galster concludes.<\/p>\n

See a gallery of the text and the Irish battlefields here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Latin terms for war<\/h2>\n

Morten Aagaard Olsen is the Latinist that is translating the texts. Academic texts were normally authored in what is called Neo-Latin at this time.<\/p>\n

\u00bbMy motivation primarily is the linguistic part, the language itself. It is interesting to see how the national languages affect the Latin, and also see the development in the Latin. Neo-Latin is a development from the Renaissance and is a look back to Virgil and Cicero to try and eradicate all the medieval Latin,\u00ab says Morten. This text is typical neo-Latin, he says, adding that, so far, he has not found any Danish’isms.<\/p>\n

His colleague Rasmus Wichmann, a historian, and the third researcher on the project, notes how Claudianus views the present through the lens of the Latin-terminology of the ancient past.<\/p>\n

\u00bbRanks for example, in the Latin, refer to Roman ranks, with a section commander being named a \u2018dux\u2019\u00ab.<\/p>\n

The new translation offers the original Latin text and the translation into English in parallel, so expert readers can compare.<\/p>\n

The text is scheduled to be published in an Irish or Canadian publisher at the end of 2013.<\/p>\n

See a gallery of the text and the Irish battlefields here.<\/a><\/p>\n

universitypost@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n

Stay in the know about news and events happening in Copenhagen by signing up for the University Post\u2019s weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Translation of Danish\/Norwegian soldier\u2019s Latin account of King William’s campaign in Ireland will finally give recognition to a key text in Irish, British and Danish war history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n17th century war story to be translated<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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of Danish\/Norwegian soldier\u2019s Latin account of King William's campaign in Ireland will finally give recognition to a key text in Irish, British and Danish war history","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":false,"user":false,"contributor_name":"Mike Young","contributor_title":" ","contributor_image":false}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>That Danish (or Norwegian) fighting men have ever fought in Ireland will come as a surprise to most people.<\/p>\n<p>But they have actually done it twice. First as a wave of Viking attackers more than a thousand years ago, second as a contingent in the employ of the Dutch usurper William of Orange who was made King of Britain as William III.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a team of historians and Latinists from the University of Copenhagen is translating and editing an account by a private soldier and former University of Copenhagen student, Andreas Claudianus, who fought under William in the Danish mercenary army in Ireland. <\/p>\n<h2>Objective account<\/h2>\n<p>Claudianus was a Norwegian soldier in a regiment lent by the Danish-Norwegian King Christian V to King William III.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kjeld Galster, an ex-army officer and a PhD in military history, Claudianus, as a foreign mercenary, had no stake in praising the command of King William, thereby giving the account objectivity.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThis chap doesn\u2019t write to please King William, he writes, if anything, to praise Danish arms,\u00ab he explains to the University Post. <\/p>\n<h2>Soldier was poor, did not finish studies<\/h2>\n<p>The Latin text, which Kjeld Galster and his two colleagues Morten Aagaard Olsen and Rasmus Wichmann are editing and translating into English, has not been referenced in many other historical works. It offers a new insight into a war that later helped define Irish and British history.<\/p>\n<p>After the war in Ireland, Claudianus came to Denmark and started as a student of theology at the University of Copenhagen. But the studies didn\u2019t go well for him \u2013 maybe he couldn\u2019t afford them – and he died as a poor teacher on the island of Fyn. <\/p>\n<p>What has made his name go down in history is the account that he finished in 1717. \u00bbHe originally intended it to be a history of Ireland, but instead it took the form of an account of the Williamite campaigns of 1689-91,\u00ab explains Kjeld Galster.<\/p>\n<p>See a gallery of <a href=\"node\/16959\">the text and the Irish battlefields here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Royal dedication<\/h2>\n<p>The flowery six-page Latin dedication to the Danish-Norwegian king, at time of publication Frederik IV, is a text worthy of examination in itself. <\/p>\n<p>\u00bbPerhaps Claudianus was hoping to get some money out of his work, but as far as we know, he never got anything for this,\u00ab explains Kjeld Halster.<\/p>\n<p>So what on earth were Danish troops doing fighting a war between rival royal houses on the island of Ireland?<\/p>\n<h2>King needed cash<\/h2>\n<p>According to Kjeld Galster, it was mainly about cash. <\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe Danish King had militarily won a war against Sweden \u2013 though France had prevented him from cashing in the dividend – and he didn\u2019t want to let his army go home until he had recouped his financial losses. He started negotiations with William to lease out 10,000 men.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>In the end, 7,000 troops of cavalry and infantry crossed the North Sea, then the moors of the north of England, before embarking again to cross for Ireland. The regiment fought at the Battle of the Boyne, all the way through to the more decisive Battle of Aughrim.<\/p>\n<h2>No ideological distortion<\/h2>\n<p>The Williamite wars later took on propaganda significance for the struggle between Protestant and Catholic, Crown and Parliament. But Claudianus\u2019 account seems to be free of all bias.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere is no ideological distortion of the facts, as far as I can see,\u00ab says Kjeld Galster, admitting that this, his conclusion, is yet based on a thin foundation. Another historian, John Jordan, believes that Claudianus indeed had religious prejudice, yet gave a fair account of the fighting.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, Claudianus\u2019 account simply \u00bbdescribes the life of a private soldier, and with comments on his superiors\u2019 orders,\u00ab Kjeld Galster concludes.<\/p>\n<p>See a gallery of <a href=\"node\/16959\">the text and the Irish battlefields here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Latin terms for war<\/h2>\n<p>Morten Aagaard Olsen is the Latinist that is translating the texts. Academic texts were normally authored in what is called Neo-Latin at this time.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbMy motivation primarily is the linguistic part, the language itself. It is interesting to see how the national languages affect the Latin, and also see the development in the Latin. Neo-Latin is a development from the Renaissance and is a look back to Virgil and Cicero to try and eradicate all the medieval Latin,\u00ab says Morten. This text is typical neo-Latin, he says, adding that, so far, he has not found any Danish’isms.<\/p>\n<p>His colleague Rasmus Wichmann, a historian, and the third researcher on the project, notes how Claudianus views the present through the lens of the Latin-terminology of the ancient past.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbRanks for example, in the Latin, refer to Roman ranks, with a section commander being named a \u2018dux\u2019\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p>The new translation offers the original Latin text and the translation into English in parallel, so expert readers can compare.<\/p>\n<p>The text is scheduled to be published in an Irish or Canadian publisher at the end of 2013.<\/p>\n<p>See a gallery of <a href=\"node\/16959\">the text and the Irish battlefields here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>universitypost@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay in the know about news and events happening in Copenhagen by <a href=\"http:\/\/universitypost.dk\/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\"> signing up for the University Post\u2019s weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":46,"name":"Science","slug":"science","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":46,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":831,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11487,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/kjeld2_0-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35347,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15220\/revisions\/35347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}