Quote:
Originally Posted by Jellby
I found something that may be classified as plagiarism:
I have a Spanish book (translated) on "Nordic Mythology", by Heinrich Niedner. According to the back cover Heinrich Niedner (1875-1932) was a Danish philosopher and humanist, and the book was published in 1915. Well, I was unable to find any mention on the net of this Heinrich Niedner, other than this same book.
But, by translating some simple sentences to English and searching them, I found this book, titled "Norse Mythology" and written by Rasmus Björn Anderson (1846-1936), who was an American professor of Norwegian origin, and who wrote the book in 1875. From what I could see, the book I have is the exact translation of this English book. Where does this apparently fictional Heinrich Niedner come from? And what is the reason of this invention? The Spanish book was published in 1997, when the English book was not public domain yet... but if Heinrich Niedner were real, it wouldn't have been public domain either! |
This was really interesting. I think you're right and that 'Heinrich Niedner' is fictional - at least as author of this work. Most links I could find were Spanish language, but I came across two references to a 'Heinrich Niedner' at a German univeristy site and works published around 1900 - I think it was social studies or something like that.
As for the name, while a Dane could concievably have had that name (though I couldn't find any Niedner's in the Danish name registry), it's a much more typically German name. I don't know if 'Mitología Nórdica' is a popular work, but it appears this might be a way for someone to make money out of a public domain work (edit: realised it wasn't public domain when the translation was published). An odd/convoluted way to do it though
