Ask the Author: Ben Waggoner
Answered Questions (4)
Ben Waggoner
Thank you for the compliment! That was written before _Vikings_ came out, but it's true that well before then, Ragnar had become the source of a lot of cultural understandings of what a Viking supposedly was.
I teach at a college, but not translation -- that's a sideline that I work on when I can find the time.
I teach at a college, but not translation -- that's a sideline that I work on when I can find the time.
Ben Waggoner
Sorry it took me so long to get around to this one! At the moment, I'm working on a translation of the Færeyinga saga, the Saga of the Faroe Islanders. The villain of the piece is a real piece of work that I love to hate -- he's wonderfully conniving and sneaky!
After that, I'm almost done with a translation of Hálfs saga, another one about legendary Scandinavian kings and Vikings, that I think I'm going to release as a stand-alone for Kindle only. Eventually it'll end up in a print compilation. And then there's that selection of Old Norse shorter tales that just never seems to get done. . .
After that, I'm almost done with a translation of Hálfs saga, another one about legendary Scandinavian kings and Vikings, that I think I'm going to release as a stand-alone for Kindle only. Eventually it'll end up in a print compilation. And then there's that selection of Old Norse shorter tales that just never seems to get done. . .
Ben Waggoner
Hey, a question! The passage reads: "Hvárt sem satt er eða eigi, þá hafi sa gaman af, er þat má at verða, en hinir leiti annars þess gamans, er þeim þykkir betra." It's Old Norse (although an educated Icelander today would be able to read it without much trouble), and I borrowed it from the prologue to a different saga, the _Saga of Hrolf Gautreksson_ (which I went on to translate and publish in _Six Sagas of Adventure_; it's a fun read). It means "Whether it [the saga] is true or not, may he enjoy it who can, and may the rest find some other amusement that they like better." Several of the old sagas, especially the more "fantasy" sagas, include playful disclaimers like that.
Ben Waggoner
OK, I know it's just the Goodreads bot posing this question, but I'll play along until I get a question from an actual person. . . This has been said often, by far better writers than I, but the way to become a writer is to write. Not sit around and wait for the perfect burst of inspiration to strike -- that's nice when it happens, but you have to learn to write well even when the inspiration is not flowing. Even when you have to drag yourself to your computer, typewriter, quill pen, or whatever you use -- you have to develop what Germans call Sitzfleisch, "sitting-down muscle", the ability to sit yourself down and persevere.
That's why I like National Novel Writing Month, at least as a useful exercise. Ideally, we'd celebrate every month as NaNoWriMo and crank out 1666 words every day. Unrealistic, yes, but. . .
That's why I like National Novel Writing Month, at least as a useful exercise. Ideally, we'd celebrate every month as NaNoWriMo and crank out 1666 words every day. Unrealistic, yes, but. . .
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