Frans G. Bengtsson
Frans G. Bengtsson (1894–1954) was born and raised in the southern Swedish province of Skåne, the son of an estate manager. His early writings, including a doctoral thesis on Geoffrey Chaucer and two volumes of poetry written in what were considered antiquated verse forms, revealed a career-long interest in historical literary modes and themes. Bengtsson was a prolific translator (of Paradise Lost, The Song of Roland, and Walden), essayist (he published five collections of his writings, mostly on literary and military topics), and biographer (his two-volume biography of Charles XII (Karl XII:s levnad) won the Swedish Academy’s annual prize in 1938). In 1941 he published Röde Orm: Sjöfarare i västerled (Red Orm at Home and on the Western Way), followed, in 1945, by Röde Orm: Hemma och i österled (Red Orm at Home and on the Eastern Way). The two books were published in a single volume in the United States and England in 1954 as The Long Ships. During the Second World War, Bengtsson was outspoken in his opposition to the Nazis, refusing to allow for a Norwegian translation of The Long Ships while the country was still under German occupation.
Bengtsson married Gerda Fineman in 1939. He studied at the University of Lund from 1912, receiving his licentiate in philosophy in 1930. He died in 1954 after a long illness.
“I heard wordOf bellied sailcloth,Creak of oars,And gold in Eastland.Then I smelledA smell remembered:Salt of sprayAnd black-pitched boat's keel.”
“Mulled ale for the frozen man,And mulled ale for the weary:For mulled ale is the body's friendAnd makes the sick heart merry.”
“A wise man, once he is past fifty, does not befuddle his senses with strong drink, nor make violent love in the cool spring night, nor dance on his hands.”
“...Orm always afterwards used to say that, after good luck, strength, and skill at arms, nothing was so useful to a man who found himself among foreigners as the ability to learn a language.”
“Hvorledes skulle det gå, hvis man slap nordboerne ind i himlen ? I ville gribe efter de hellige jomfruer med utugtig tale, udstøde et hærskrig over for serafer og ærkeengle og skråle efter øl, når I stod ansigt til ansigt med Gud.”