# Norwegian: forestillingsliv? hengebunnen?



## QuinnFox

Can anyone help me with these? I'm trying to figure out English equivalents for them.  I understand the gist of what "forestillingsliv" means, but I'm thinking perhaps it's a specific term of art in Freudian psychology and must have an exact English equivalent, but I'm not finding it.

"Disse innfall eller assosiasjoner kan i en rekke tilfeller avsløre hvilket tankeinnhold som skjuler seg bak drømmens flimrende strøm av bilder, og ved å følge en enkelt slik assosiasjonsbane kan det ofte lykkes oss å trenge ned til helt skjulte komplekser av forestillinger, ned til det såkalte fortrengte *forestillingsliv* –"

"All sokning efter liket er imidlertid nytteløs på grunn av *hengebunnen *i tjernet."

Thanks in advance for any help!


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## AutumnOwl

Forestillningsliv - imaginative life, I think the term in Freudian psychology is fantasy.

Hengebunnen - the words are hang/hanging and bottom, but I don't know what a hanging bottom in a pond would be.


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## winenous

From the context in the original passage I found with google, I suspect the English is _false bottom. _See discussion here: Bog | wetland


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## winenous

Freud uses a word that is translated into _forestillingsliv _here:
"Drømmen kan ikke sammenliknes med de uregelmessige lyder som oppstår i et musikkinstrument når det blir truffet av tilfeldige, ytre krefter istedenfor av en musikers hånd, drømmen er ikke meningsløs, ikke absurd, forutsetter ikke at en del av vårt forestillingsliv sover mens en annen del begynner å våkne"

The English translation is:
"Dreams are not comparable to the spontaneous sounds made by a musical instrument struck rather by some external force than by the hand of a performer; they are not meaningless, not absurd, they do not imply that one portion of our stockpile of ideas sleeps while another begins to awaken."

So here it is translated as _stockpile of ideas_. I have also seen it translated in this context as _store of ideas_. I'm not sure how useful that is, but it's the best I can do.

I don't think _fantasy _is correct. Freud used the German word _Phantasie_, which is normally translated as _phantasy _in English, as it is used in a particular Freudian sense. The obvious Norwegian translation would be _fantasi_, or some variant of that word, but I have not managed to verify that.


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## Den falska sköldpaddan

You are right. Based on Swedish *föreställningsliv*_, _which is rarely used and close to the more common *föreställningsvärld*, it is likely to connote something like _frame of reference, mindset, universe of ideas, system of conceptions_.


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## raumar

QuinnFox said:


> "All sokning efter liket er imidlertid nytteløs på grunn av *hengebunnen *i tjernet."





winenous said:


> I suspect the English is _false bottom. _


That seems right, but "hengebunn" is an unusual word in Norwegian. I don't think I have seen it anywhere else, and I don't find it in dictionaries. But it must be a parallel to "hengemyr" (quagmire): the bottom of the lake is like a quagmire - things can sink into it and diappear.


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## Den falska sköldpaddan

Having done some googling on *hengebunn* I mostly get various DIY instructions. I get the impression that it is a bottom or base that is U-shaped. The idea is perhaps that the lake had a very deep bottom.


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## raumar

Den falska sköldpaddan said:


> I get the impression that it is a bottom or base that is U-shaped.


No, I don't think so. It is true that googling gives you completely unrelated things, such as the bottom of "_hengekøyer_" or "_tilhengere_", and a couple of references to this text in _De dødes tjern. _This just shows how unusual this word is. Maybe the author invented it? 

But given the context (that it is impossible to drag the lake for the body), and the fact that "_hengemyr_" is an ordinary Norwegian word, I still think it is likely that the meaning is that the bottom of the lake is like a _hengemyr,_ and that it has swallowed the body (if there was one).


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## QuinnFox

Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate the help! I think the "false bottom" thing is right, as is the quagmire -- the author mentions that there is a muddy layer of quicksand-like material about five feet deep, and I'm guessing that bodies might sink through it down to a much deeper bottom below.


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## winenous

QuinnFox said:


> Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate the help! I think the "false bottom" thing is right, as is the quagmire -- the author mentions that there is a muddy layer of quicksand-like material about five feet deep, and I'm guessing that bodies might sink through it down to a much deeper bottom below.


Yes, I have also just found this in the first chapter of the book, which was a free sample of the ebook version, which also supports that idea:


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