Translating Luther into Swedish in the Sixteenth Century

This article investigates the production of religious literature published in Swedish from 1520 to 1599, specifically looking for translations of Luther’s texts. Previous research has concluded that Luther was relatively absent from the Swedish book market during the sixteenth Century – apart from translations of the Small Catechism and his Bible. In order to challenge previous research, the article applies a wider understanding of the early modern translation practice and incorporates adaptions and translations of smaller text excerpts compiled into larger works as well as word-for-word translations of complete texts.

Luther was present in the Swedish book market through various forms of translations, from faithful literal translations to mere inspirations. These findings have implications for the study of translations of Luther into other vernaculars during the early modern period. The argument in this article, that we must pay more attention to contemporary translation practices in order to understand the volume of translations, implies that there are more hidden translations, also in other vernaculars, and that looking for them may be rewarding.