ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates whether a relatively autonomous Scandinavian translation field in the global translation field can be discerned due to the common peripheral positions and overall make-up of the literary systems of the Scandinavian countries. It also investigates whether there is a centre in this alleged peripheral field of translation, a centre where particular works and writers are legitimized and consecrated in the first instance before being distributed to the local periphery. The position of the Scandinavian languages in the global translation field, as well as their position in the local regions, indicates the centrality of the Swedish language in relation to Danish and Norwegian. The examined relatively autonomous field constitutes a necessary condition for the high prestige of the Scandinavian languages in the global translation field. The writer and the translator are then consecrated by agents of the Swedish literary field and institutions and afterwards further distributed and translated to the other Scandinavian languages.
