Samuel Laing

Scottish travel writer and translator
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroScottish travel writer and translator
PlacesUnited Kingdom Scotland
wasTranslator
Gender
Male
Birth1780
Death1868 (aged 88 years)
Family
Children:Samuel Laing
The details

Biography

Samuel Laing (1780 – 1868) from Papdale in Orkney was a Scottish travel writer. He travelled in Scandinavia and northern Germany and published descriptions of these countries.

Laing's son, also named Samuel Laing, was a railway administrator and important writer on religion and science, and a Liberal Member of Parliament.

Works

  • Journal of a residence in Norway during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, 1836
  • A tour in Sweden in 1838, 1839
    • In this work, the author strongly criticises the Swedish-Norwegian union, implying that Norway ought to strive for independence. This caused a comment from the Swedish-Norwegian ambassador in London, M. Björnstierna, On the moral state and political union of Sweden and Norway, 1840.
  • Notes of a traveller, 1842
    • Covers journeys in Prussia and other countries. The preface contains a response to Björnstierna.
  • Heimskringla. The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway, 3 vols., 1844
    • English translation of the 13th-century Icelandic work by Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 14 May 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.