On "setubingur" and "hugvitsverkfæri"

Use of words in Tómas Sæmundsson's travelogue

Abstract

In the spirit of the European Grand Tour, Tómas Sæmundsson journeyed through continental Europe and elsewhere from 1832 to 1834. He was one of the publishers of the Fjölnir journal, and after returning to Iceland, he began writing a travelogue which he never finished. In 1947, his drafts were assembled and published by Jakob Benediktsson, as Ferðabók Tómasar Sæmundssonar or Tómas Sæmundsson’s Travelogue. This article reviews the book's history, starting with the original manuscript and including Sæmundsson’s general objectives as well as his attitudes towards language. The spotlight then shifts to his use of words. Sæmundsson faced a twopronged problem: firstly, he was so timid about his Icelandic language skills that he had all his published writing edited, not least to meet the strictures of his Fjölnir colleagues. Secondly, he wished to communicate knowledge which he had gained abroad through other languages. Much of this was on subjects which were unfamiliar to contemporary Icelanders and for which few terms existed in Icelandic. To avoid adopting or adapting foreign words, he coined distinctly Icelandic neologisms, though he often accompanied these with the foreign term or some other explanation to ensure comprehension.