User:Kathryngr21/sandbox/Beatrice Barmby

Beatrice Barmby

Beatrice Helen Barmby (BORN) was an English poet, playwright and Old Norse scholar and enthusiast. She was the daughter of...

Life

Not much is known about Barmby's life outside of her literary work. Struggling with disability and ill health, Barmby found the study of Icelandic sagas to be a particular comfort. In his preface York F. Powell speaks of how Barmby would "busy herself with the Old Norse Northern tongue and literature" in "many long hours that would otherwise have passed heavily and painfully" Before her work could reach print Barmby died in January 1899. However before she died her manuscript play Gisli Sursson based on Gisla Saga was translated into Icelandic by Matthias Jochumsson. It was also read at the Viking Club in London.

Works

The only publication of Barmby's work is the posthumous Gísli Súrsson: a drama; Ballad and poems of the Old Norse days and some translations, which contains poems of her own creations; translations of poems from the Old Norse, and her own dramatic rendering of the outlaw Íslendingasögur, Gísla Saga. The volume was compiled by York F. Powell.

Poems

Barmby's poems are split up into two categories - those that are translations of Old Norse poems and original poems inspired by Icelandic literature and culture. There are ... translations and ... originals.

Gísli Súrsson

Writing at the height of Victorian verse drama Barmby transforms Gisla Saga - a work of prose - into a drama.

Correspondences

Although Barmby is a much neglected and obscure Norse enthusiast W.G. Collingwood (by contrast a renowned Icelandophile) was aware of her work within the field. In his diary entry for the 31st August 1895 he speaks of having "worked at Miss Barmby's play", referring to her verse drama Gísli Súrsson. It has been proposed that Collingwood acted as an editor for Barmby, suggesting alterations and improvements. If this is the case, it is possible that Collingwood helped shape Barmby's verse drama; illustrative of how Norse Medievalism at this time

Iceland

Although Barmby was never able to visit Iceland she managed to teach herself Icelandic. Her proficiency in the language is proven in her own translations of Old Norse poems such as ... and ...

Barmby's correspondence with W.G. Collingwood means that it is likely that Barmby came into contact with at least a few of Collingwood's 170 and more watercolour paintings of the Icelandic landscape. Thus Barmby would have held certain images of Icelandic landscape in her mind whilst composing her poems and poetry, one of the cruxes of which is landscape.

Her love of Icelandic language and culture is evidenced in her original poem To Iceland. "To Iceland" resonates with a more well known 'ode' to Iceland, William Morris' Iceland First Seen.