Find ideas to translate
🌍 Translate the novel The Hammock and the Hummingbirds
A scene speaks to you? Send it travelling.
What you translate stays yours, and your name goes with it everywhere.
📖 “The dictionary of the novel’s words
that nobody but me ever invented”
Type your sentence in French. It comes out in Viking.
“My boss fired me” → “My jarl banished me from the longship”
“I’m burnt out” → “I did the great reset”
“I got a lawyer” → “I raised my shield with a Rune Reader”
“My boss talks for three hours in meetings” → “My chieflet blathers on for three hours at the Thing”
“I’m off on holiday in the sun with my camper van and my dog” → “I’m off for some dolce far niente in the sun with my drak-car and my Big Dog”
Homemade, from the book’s lexicon. It only works on the words of the world — for everything else, it leaves you in peace.
🌍 Translate into your language
A quote, a scene, a chapter. Pick the one you like best. Just one, not the whole book — we explain why further down.
Submit your chapter🌍 Translate into Viking
The author (to the readers) — And since I don’t speak Viking, if you’re native Vikings, thank you for your translations.
The Viking — It’ll never work!
The author — Don’t listen to him.
🌍 Translate the invented words
Drak-car, Rune Reader, tchoufa, the Scorched Lands sickness… How would you say them where you live?
Submit your wordsHave a go without being a translator
Translate with a tool, then read it back yourself. It’s your proofreading that makes the translation, not the machine.
DeepL — the best for European languages, with a generous free version
LibreTranslate — free and open, no account, around a hundred languages
Google Translate — for rare languages
⚠️ A machine can’t translate humour. It’ll give you “stupid French woman” and miss “tchoufa”. That’s exactly where you come in.
Why just one chapter
A translation isn’t an object next to the book: it is the book.
You hold copyright in your text, and nobody can publish your translation without your written consent.
One chapter needs no contract: you translate, your name appears next to it, and everyone’s happy.
You’ve translated three and want to carry on? Write to me, let’s talk.
Write to meShow yourself
You speak another language, even badly?
It’s free, and nobody judges. Here, the gems are imperfect.
You’re a translator, interpreter or language teacher?
It’s free too: show what you can do.
Either way, your name appears next to your text, your profile goes into the directory, and others can contact you directly.
See the creators’ directoryKeep going
You can also create another way, or go and see the novel’s invented words.
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No commitment • Cancel anytime • Access possible even if money is tight
🧰 Tools, if you get stuck
We won’t leave you facing the blank page. Each guide fits on one page: the key, what’s really going on, and what to do.