In 2019, Forlaget Press published a book titled Fru Muus’ klage: En historie og kjærlighet, tro, svik og utvandring, written by Bodil Stenseth. I was immediately drawn into the story because of how the author uses a marriage drama to characterize the broader Norwegian-American immigrant community in Minnesota. The scandal triggered a very public debate on women’s legal rights, divorce, the role of religion, citizenship, and identity. Stenseth creatively connects so many pieces of local history; pieces that I never felt were openly discussed or widely known, even as they so closely connect to the founding of St. Olaf College.

And so I decided that this story needs to be translated into English and that I wanted to take on that task!

From the back of the book (translated from the Norwegian)
In the late fall of 1879, the Goodhue County Court in Minnesota filed a lawsuit from Mrs. Oline Muus. The pastor’s wife filed a complaint against her husband, Pastor Bernt Julius Muus, in order to be able to receive an inheritance from her father. In the suit, she described how the heartless pastor treated her and her children over many years.

The conflict between the couple quickly became a news sensation. The members of the Holden congregation publicly discussed details from the couple’s private life. The scandal created intense debate on both sides of the Atlantic: How was the relationship between the Norwegian minority and the larger society? Would enlightenment, women’s liberation and modern democracy ever be accepted in the deep religious immigrant community? Were Norwegians really real Americans, or just obdurate representatives of a dark and foreign religion?

Bodil Stenseth reveals, for the first time, the entire story about the marriage scandal in the Norwegian-America. What happened between the couple? How does their conflict shed light on the Norwegian immigrants’ lives in America? And did Oline Muus have a right to her claim? Mrs. Muus’ Grievance is like an Ibsenesque drama on the prairie: an enigmatic love story, an exploration of social and religious conflicts, and a fascinating and unique portrait of a Norwegian society which no longer exists.

Connections to my earlier scholarship
A significant element of my teaching and scholarship involves the use of new technologies. Previously, this has been focused on the use of technology for acquiring language (projects such as Sett i gang and Godt i gang). While still rooted in technology, this project shifts that focus to the use of technology for the purpose of translation, a field that is rapidly changing and also a field that is in need of competent practitioners. This opportunity allows me to use my expertise in a new way while also giving students a firsthand experience in how translators work and how and when they utilize computer memory in their translations.

One exciting new development in the intersection of language and technology is the use of Translation Extraction Tools (TET), which is a type of Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tool for terminology management. This is the process of collecting, defining, translating, and storing terms. These tools aide in managing terminology properly in the translation process in order to improve the quality and efficiency of a translation.

While human translators are essential, many companies today require their translators to use some kind of CAT tool. Through use of these tools, one is able to reduce duplicate work, the amount of time spent, and errors and inconsistencies, etc.  We would like to thank Memsource for granting us free access to their platform through the Memsource Academic Edition. The opportunity to explore these tools in a mentored environment allows students to explore the state-of-the-art field of translation while also utilizing their Norwegian language knowledge in a meaningful way.

I have done translation before, but it certainly hasn’t been the focus of my scholarship. I vividly remember a question I received when going up for tenure and promotion from a colleague (shout out to Dr. Mary Titus) on the T&P committee as to whether I would seek out more translation projects in the future. I still both cringe and chuckle when I think back to the response I gave, “I don’t think so. Translation is like broccoli, nobody really likes it but you put up with it because it’s good for your brain”. Suffice it to say, I had better answers to their other questions. Thinking back, maybe the early translation I did didn’t really fit my working style, I hadn’t found a way to utilize technology in a way that helped me move forward. And, I think that both the question and the answer has made me think about translation as a part of my scholarship as I move forward in my career. I don’t think I will ever like broccoli, but I have been enjoying this translation project thus far!

Project overview
This project is no small feat. The body is 304 pages in length, with an additional 38 pages of citations, notes, etc. My plan is that the book will be translated and available for sale in time for the 2024 sesquicentennial of St. Olaf College and the 2025 bicentennial commemoration of Norwegian migration to America.

Timeline
Bodil and I met in January 2020 in Oslo and discussed my interest in translating the project and after bonding over coffee, and then I set to work!

Summer 2020
Together with three students, Kristian Noll, Synneva Bratland, and Patricia (Tyga) Kinsumbya, I received the Magnus the Good Collaborative Fellowship from St. Olaf College in order to develop a linguistic termbase for the English translation. Essentially we collected, categorized, defined, and translated the most frequently used words in the book in order to ensure the quality and efficiency of the translation. Additionally, we translated an article based on the author’s research to test the termbase. This article will be published in the 39th issue (Fall 2021) of the Norwegian-American Historical Association‘s journal, Norwegian-American Studies.

Summer 2021
I jumped back into the project summer 2021 after a pandemic-hiatus. This summer I switched the translation platform to Memsource Academic Edition after much experimenting with various platforms that I would allow me to work together with students. I also have been spending time in the St. Olaf College archives locating and reading some of the original documents and also using microfiche from 1880.

 

Next steps
My plan is to have the first two sections of the book translated by May 2022. During this process I am mentoring student researchers and a student editor, more blog posts about this to come! Dr. Torild Homstad, a retired colleague and local Northfield and St. Olaf guru, will my sounding board for questions related to the translation and also proofreading.

I plan to complete the translation during my sabbatical in 2022-2023. Hopefully by this time I can decide on a name for the book, my working title for now is: Let Patience Be Your Liniment: The Marriage Scandal That Shook Norwegian-America

If you want to learn more about the contents of the book, but don’t wish to wait for me to finish the translation, here are some sources to point you in the right direction:
Ericson, Kathryn. “Triple Jeopardy: The Muus vs. Muus Case in Three Forums.” Minnesota History 50, no. 8 (Winter 1987): 298–308. 
Muus v Muus