Translating a children’s book into Finnish for Viking Line
We translated the children’s book Ville Viking and the Magic Bracelet into Finnish for Viking Line so that Finnish-speaking children can enjoy the magical story on Viking Line ships.
The children’s book “Ville Viking and the Magic Bracelet”
Viking Line is a Finnish shipping company with ferries that run between Finland, Åland, Sweden and Estonia. On each ship there is a children’s club where you can find their mascot Ville Viking the ship’s cat, who plays, hugs and sings with all the children.
Our client, True Stories, created the concept and character of Ville Viking – and their most recent creative project was the Swedish children’s book “Ville Viking and the Magic Bracelet”. They wanted the book translated into Finnish so that children from Finland could also enjoy the magical story.
About True Stories
True Stories is an agency that creates events and concepts that are appealing to children. It has developed the concepts and characters of Valle for Skistar and Yessi for First Camp. It collaborates with Sara Edwardsson, a famous children’s presenter on the Swedish television channel SVT, who has an impressive portfolio of programmes broadcast on SVT and is the author of “Ville Viking and the Magic Bracelet”.
Client
True Stories
Sector
Education | Children and family entertainment
Service
Translation
Conditions and challenges
The task was to translate a Swedish children’s book into Finnish for Viking Line, a True Stories customer. The book was around 2,000 words long.
Storytelling in language that is suitable for children
Texts designed for children require a deep understanding of the target group and language that is both modern and engaging.
Short deadline
The project landed on our desk in the days between Christmas and New Year with a very short deadline.
Our client’s customer
The entire project became a bit like a version of The Telephone Game, as our client was True Stories, but the end customer was Viking Line.
Terminology
The character of Ville has a unique style and, at the request of Viking Line, we needed to use very specific terminology in our translation.
Limited space
The speech bubbles were designed for Swedish text and the translation to Finnish couldn’t exceed the space allowed.
Poetry and rhymes
Ville loves singing and a lot of the text in the book was made up of poetry that needed to rhyme and flow well.
How we approach this assignment
Because of the many challenges involved, we weren’t just looking for a translator with experience of translating songs, poetry and rhymes, but also someone who had young children. In the end, we didn’t just find one, but two translators who collaborated on the book.
Ahead of the task, we asked for a physical copy of the Swedish book so that we could match our translations to the illustrations and make sure that the text didn’t exceed the space available in the speech bubbles.
Translators experienced in translating texts aimed at children
We chose to work with Finnish linguists who have experience in translating children’s books, nursery rhymes and lyrics – and who also have young children themselves. The end result is a text that has natural language, good rhythm and a tone of voice adapted for children.
Working based on the book’s layout
Having access to a physical copy of the book enabled us to adapt the translation based on the illustrations and speech bubbles. This ensured that the text would fit the space and also work visually with the other content on the page.
Adapting rhyme, rhythm and the character’s voice
We focused in particular on recreating songs and rhymes, ensuring that they worked just as well in Finnish as in Swedish. We also made sure that Ville Viking’s unique way of talking and expressing himself was present in the translation.
The end result
The result was greatly appreciated. When we later held a networking meeting on a Viking Line ferry, we got to take a look at both the Swedish and Finnish versions of “Ville Viking and the Magic Bracelet” which had gone to print and were being sold in the ship’s shop.
Finished product ready to print and use
We were involved in the client’s project from manuscript to finished and printed book to ensure that both the language and design worked in their final context.
The book reaches the end customer
Today the book is available on board Viking Line ships where it can reach its target group – the children – in the right environment and context.
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