Elise Charlotte Otté (30 September 1818 – 20 December 1903) was an

Anglo-Danish The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercia ...

linguist, scholar and historian. She completed a number of translations into English from different languages. She assisted her step-father in translating the Norse poems known as the

Elder Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

Early life

Otté was born in Copenhagen on 30 September 1818, to a Danish father and an English mother called Mary Anne.Elizabeth Baigent, 'Otté, Elise Charlotte (1818–1903)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 13 Feb 2015
/ref> In 1820, she moved with her parents to the island of

Saint Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

(then Sankt Croix of the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with ; Saint John ( da, St. Jan) with ; and Saint Croix with . The ...

). When her father died, she and her mother returned to Denmark.

Education

In Copenhagen, her mother met and married another British man, English

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis. A ...

, and together, the family moved to England. Thorpe taught his step-daughter several modern languages as well as Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon to the point that she was able to assist his grammatical work, but they clashed on a personal level and she found him oppressive. In 1840, she moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

for some independence and to study physiology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. She also spent time on a tour of Europe.

Academic career

She later returned to her step-father's and she assisted his translation of the

. She found life with him intolerable, however, and in 1849, she moved to Scotland and worked at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

translating for

George Edward Day George Edward Day (1815–1872) was a Welsh physician. Life He was born on 4 August 1815 at Tenby, Pembrokeshire. He was the son of George Day of Manorabon House, Swansea; his father had inherited the fortunes of his own father, George Day, ph ...

. Otte was again assisting an academic who was older than her. When Day retired in 1863, she moved with Day and his wife to

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

until his death in 1872. She continued her career from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, writing in scientific periodicals, but also publishing a monograph, ''Scandinavian history'', in 1874. This work of academic study had lasting impact and it was reprinted up to 1939 under the title of "Norway, Sweden and Denmark" which matched the title of her 1881 work "Denmark and Iceland". Her breadth and depth of knowledge enabled her to publish a range of works. She translated a number of books from German by

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

and another by the historian Johann Martin Lappenberg. Her range of skills enabled her to also translate the scientific ''Rambles of a Naturalist on the Coast of Spain, France and Sicily'' by the biologist

Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (10 February 1810 – 12 January 1892) was a French biologist. Life He was born at Berthézène, in the commune of Valleraugue (Gard), the son of a Protestant farmer. He studied science and then medic ...

which was written in French. In 1884 she published grammars of both Danish and Swedish as well as textbooks aimed at students of German in 1859 and of Danish in 1879.Elizabeth Baigent, 'Otté, Elise Charlotte (1818–1903)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 17 Feb 2015
/ref> She died at Richmond on 20 December 1903, in her eighty-sixth year.

Notable works

*''Scandinavian history.'' London, Macmillan & Co., 1874. *''Denmark and Iceland.'' London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1881. *''A simplified grammar of the Danish language.'' London: Trübner & Co., 1883. *''A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.'' London: Trübner & Co., 1884. *''Norway, Sweden and Denmark.'' edited by Edward Samuel Corwin. Polar research by G.T. Surface. Chicago : H.W. Snow,

1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas '' Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York C ...

Translations

*''Views of nature, or, Contemplations on the sublime phenomena of creation'' by

. With Henry G. Bohn. London: H.G. Bohn, 1850. *'' Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe'' by Alexander von Humboldt. London: H. G. Bohn, 1851 *''The rambles of a naturalist on the coasts of France, Spain, and Sicily'' by

. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. *''Pictures of Old England'' by

Reinhold Pauli Reinhold Pauli (25 May 1823 in Berlin – 3 June 1882 in Bremen) was a German historian of England. Life He studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, where he received his PhD in 1846. In 1847 he moved to England, where he served as private ...

. Cambridge, London, Macmillan and Co., 1861.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otte, Elise 1818 births 1903 deaths Danish people of English descent 19th-century Danish historians Historians of Denmark 19th-century translators 19th-century Danish women writers Danish women historians Translators of the Poetic Edda