Most medievalists begin in translation. It is unavoidable: few of us arrive already reading Old English, Old Norse, Latin, Middle Welsh, or medieval French. Translation is the bridge that lets us enter a world otherwise closed to us. But it is also a filter. Every translated text carries the fingerprints of the translator — their choices, interpretations, assumptions, and blind spots. To read medieval texts well, especially as historians, we must learn to read through translation rather than simply in it.

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1. Start With the Obvious: What Translation Are You Using?

Not all translations are created equal. Some prioritise readability, smoothing out strangeness in favour of modern clarity. Others cling closely to the original syntax, preserving difficulty at the risk of awkward English.

Before analysing anything, ask:

• Who translated this, and when? (A Victorian translation may sound moralising; a 2020 one may foreground gender or power.)
• Is it literal, poetic, or paraphrased?
• Does it note manuscript variants?
• Does it include commentary revealing the translator’s agenda or assumptions?

A translation is never neutral. Knowing the translator’s method tells you what kinds of distortions to expect.

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2. Identify What the Translation Smooths Over

Translators often “fix” things that are deliberately ambiguous or culturally specific.

Look for:

• Untranslatable words (e.g., wyrd in Old English, cýnn in Old Norse, teulu in Welsh).
• Idioms or metaphors that disappear (e.g., kinship metaphors, legal formulae, kennings).
• Syntax changes; Medieval sentences often pile ideas together; translations break them into neat clauses.

Ask yourself:

• What cultural work does the original phrasing do that the translation cannot carry across?
• What might the translator be making “less strange” for a modern audience?

Sometimes the strangeness matters — it signals worldview, psychology, cosmology.

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3. Look for Places Where the Translation Makes a Choice

Every translation contains interpretive decisions disguised as “natural English.”

Examples:

• Gender assignments in languages without fixed gender.
• Words like “lord,” “king,” or “warrior” that might be neutral or political in the original.
• Translating metaphorical language as literal, or vice versa.

A good analytical question:

If the translator had chosen a different English word here, how would the meaning shift?

This is where close-reading becomes historical analysis: you reveal the tension between what the text says and what the translation makes it appear to say.

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4. Compare Translations When Possible

If you have access to two or three translations, place them side by side.

Differences often reveal:

• ideological biases
• scholarly trends
• interpretive uncertainty
• cultural assumptions

For example, emotional vocabulary (love, loyalty, grief) varies wildly by translator because medieval emotional expression does not map neatly onto ours.

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5. Use the Apparatus: Notes, Prefaces, Editions

Professional editions include:

• manuscript information
• variant readings
• explanations of difficult terms
• rationales for translation choices

Treat these paratexts as part of the text — because they shape what you think the text is.

Understanding where the text came from (which manuscript, what date, what scribal habits) gives essential context for evaluating the translation.

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6. Ask: What Does the Translation Change About Power?

Power is the most frequently “edited” feature in translation.

Look for:

• passive → active voice changes
• modern moralising inserted into speech
• smoothing over misogyny, violence, or social hierarchy
• Christianising or secularising a pagan text
• romanticising the past or making it gritty

Ask:

Does this translation make medieval people sound more like us? If so, why?

This question alone can unlock entire essays.

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7. What Gets Lost — and How to Recover It

Translation inevitably loses:

• sound-patterns (alliteration, rhyme, meter)
• wordplay
• kennings, metaphors, riddling language
• legal and social nuance
• culturally embedded assumptions

You cannot fully regain these in English — but you can acknowledge them and explain their absence as part of your argument.

Often, the key insight lies in what the translation cannot carry across.

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8. Build Analysis That Goes Beyond Summary

Your goal is not to say “the text means X,” but:

• what the translation reveals
• what it obscures
• how the translator’s choices shape interpretation
• what the medieval context suggests the line might have meant
• what modern assumptions distort our reading

A strong close-reading acknowledges both:

• the gaps
• and the productive spaces created by translation.

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Final Takeaway

Reading medieval texts in translation is not a limitation — it is a methodological opportunity. The tension between original and translation lets you uncover cultural, linguistic, and ideological assumptions on both sides. The more alert you are to what gets lost, the closer you get to what the text might have meant in its original world.

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