scandinavia

An unpublished French translation of Wheaton’s influential History of the Northmen (1831) by Emma Chuppin de Germigny (1809?-1852). History of the Northmen is notable not just as wide-ranging account of Scandinavian diaspora across Europe, but as the first book in English to claim that America had been discovered by the Norse before the voyage of Columbus. It also recounts the discovery of Greenland, traditionally attributed to early Norse adventurers, and later colonisation efforts, including that by Erik the Red — who, according to the Icelandic sagas, explored and eventually settled the southwest coast of Greenland in the late tenth century. Wheaton, a native of Providence, Rhode Island and an alumnus of Brown University was prominent as a lawyer, diplomat and antiquarian. His research into Scandinavian history began with his appointment as American chargé d’affaires to Denmark in 1827.

The translator of this version, Emma Chuppin de Germigny, was the daughter of a noble emigré settled in Normandy after the Revolution. A long biographical entry in the Mémoires of the Caen Académie recounts her life: her family’s reduced circumstances necessitated her work as a schoolmistress in Caen, during which time she produced a series of scholarly works (including the Wheaton translation). Like Wheaton, she was interested in the legacy of the Normans and published a history of music in Normandy from the ninth century to her own day (1836) and an account of the Bayeux Tapestry (1846). Her translation of Wheaton’s work was not published, though the form of this manuscript, and Emma’s circumstances, strongly suggests it was intended to be. It is almost certainly in her autograph, with occasional corrections. In the event, a French edition by Paul Guillot, with numerous additional apparatus, appeared at Paris in 1844.