So, it's farewell to the latest TV Beck episodes, which were a bit confusing as one of the main characters, Gunwald, was shot fairly soon into the series to be replaced by a very tall man with a beard you could use as a rug and a Norwegian accent.
The Nord-crime fest has been with us for so long that I now seriously believe I can actually speak Scandic ('tak ..praecis...alibi..') and I've almost stopped getting snagged up by the sub-titles, except where they are just plain daft. There was a bit in the last series of The Bridge where Martin, the gloomy can't-keep-it-in-his-cargoes 'tec met up with his son.
Martin: Hi.
Son: Hi.
Subtitles: Hi....Hi.
Someone in the sub-title department was clearly having a laugh.
I don't know how you react, but I also find heartening to realise that there are countries where people exist in a sort of 24 hour low-level gloomy twilight, speak languages in which the consonants vastly outnumber the vowels, and spend all their lives killing each other or plotting political coups behind the scenes. And only have 8 professional TV actors between them. Maybe that is why Annie, the heroine of my YA ebook Jigsaw Pieces, originates from one of the Scandi countries. I'm a closet gloomster with hidden psychotic tendencies.
I hold my hands up at this point and confess that of all the countries featured in the Nordic Noir dramas, I have a particular fondness for the Danes, because they translated one of my books into Danish. Rodt Flojl (the o's have little lines through them, can't work out how to do it, sorry) which is the Danish version of Red Velvet, has been available in Danish bookshops since 2001.
Interestingly, Rodt Flojl, the translated version, is at least a third longer than its English counterpart Red Velvet. Don't know why. Complete mystery. Maybe I have more to say in Danish. Sadly, I also don't know what it is, but every now and then I receive a small royalty cheque.
Tak.
I'm sure we've all seen some wonderful translations! I recall being in a restaurant in the Azores, where the Portuguese for kebabs was translated as 'roasted pricks' !!
ReplyDeleteOh Brilliant!!!! You must have seen so many weird and wonderful translations of things on your travels....
Delete"Rodt Flojl (the o's have little lines through them, can't work out how to do it, sorry)" Bad that you're using a Mac. With a standard PC I could tell you how.
ReplyDeleteo with the line through it is: ALT+0248 (small) and ALT+0216 for a capital letter (most exist on Mac too. In Windows it's called 'Character map'
ø I just held down the 'o' key on my keyboard and it came up.
Deletewait OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ...nope
DeleteI wonder why they are so gloomy though, Carol. Perhaps it really is because of the lack of light. I went to Finland a few years ago in May and it was still freezing - in that there was still snow and the sea was frozen, so I'm not exaggerating. That would make me very gloomy despite the days being quite long by that time. If it stayed so cold for so long here, I think I'd want to kill someone too. By the way, do these eight actors spread themselves across all the Scan countries? I love the idea of your book being so much meatier in Danish....
ReplyDeleteThey seem to...every series, you spot the same ones. Someone did a chart showing how they all overlap!
DeleteI have to say I rather like these Nordic Noir - gloom and all - and like you can speak several words of Swedish. I first got into The Bridge (Love Saga Noren) but I do wonder whether Sweden really is full of serial psychopathic killers who leave lots of clues behind - presumably because they want to get caught.
ReplyDeleteI read an account of a chap who went to work in Norway for 2 years. He was horrified at the gloom and misery the Norwegians exuded and wondered how he would survive but when summer came, he said, they evolved into lovely, friendly people and he was still happily living in Norway 20 years later! So I guess long dark winters do have an effect!
I can't cope with too much gloom - doesn't matter if it's low light or dark fiction. A bit is OK, but I need plenty of light relief in between.
ReplyDelete