ABSTRACT
Abstract. Sir George Grey (1812-1898) is an important figure in the history of translation in the Pacific. His work as a translator, however, has been relatively little studied, despite the fact that his English-language version of Maori myths and legends, Polynesian Mythology (1855) exerted, and still exerts, a determining influence on how this Pacific mythology was and is perceived. In this article, Grey’s intellectual and philological interests are described, his translation practices are discussed, and his book is analyzed in terms of other, earlier accounts of indigenous mythologies; also described are the book’s intended audience, and Grey’s treatment of his Maori-language source text, Nga Mahi a Nga Tupuna [The Deeds of the Ancestors] (1854). Special attention is paid to Grey’s translation of the Hinemoa legend, which for complex historical and cultural reasons was extremely popular with Grey’s mid-nineteenth-century European readers.
