Norman Mosley Penzer (30 September 1892 – 27 November 1960) — known as N. M. Penzer — was a British

independent scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

and Fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

who specialised in

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern stu ...

. He translated the tale of

Nala Nala (Sanskrit: नल) is a character in the '' Vana Parva'' book of the ''Mahabharata''. He was the king of Nishadha Kingdom and the son of Veerasena. Nala was known for his skill with horses and for his culinary expertise. He married prin ...

and

Damayanti ''Damayanti'' (Sanskrit: दमयंती) is a character in a love story found in the Vana Parva book of the Mahabharata. She was the daughter of Bhima (not the Pandava one) and a princess of the Vidarbha Kingdom, who married King Nala of ...

in 1926 from Sanskrit.

Biography

Penzer’s father, the Reverend Seymour Penzer (1857–1918), was ordained in the

Established Church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

(Church of England) and finished his career in charge of the Chapel Royal, Brighton,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

. Educated at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, Penzer's interests encompassed economics, geology, comparative anthropology, folklore, the history of exploration, and old silver. In Penzer’s obituary, the Royal Geographical Society lamented that his "gifts of scholarship were never as fully developed as many thought they might have been". An eminent authority on Sir

Richard Francis Burton Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...

, the Society remarked that “it will always be a matter of regret that he did not write the definitive biography of Burton it was so well within his power to do."

Works

Books

''As editor'': *''An Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton, K.C.M.G.'' (1923); London: A. M. Philpot. (Reprinted 1970) *Burton, R. F. (1924), ''Selected Papers on Anthropology, Travel & Exploration, Now edited with an Introduction and Occasional Notes by N. M. Penzer''; B. Blom, 240 pages. (Reprint: Ayer Co Pub, 1972) *''The Ocean of Story, Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara'' (or ''Ocean of Streams of Story'') (1924–28), London: Chas. J. Sawyer
Volumes IIIIIIIVVVIVIIVIIIIX
(Annotated reprint of a group of ancient Indian folktales, first translated in the 1880s)Lieberman, Tucker (January 24, 2013), "The History of N. M. Penzer's Edition of the Ocean of Story" @ Helium *''Nala & Damayanti'', A. M. Philpot, 1926; Illustrated with ten miniatures by P. Zenker *Hamilton, Alexander and Sir William Foster (1930), ''A New Account of the East Indies ... Edited with Introduction and Notes by Sir William Foster'', (General Editor: N. M. Penzer.) ith Maps London. *Basile, Giambattista, Benedetto Croce, Norman Mosley Penzer, and Stith Thompson (1932), ''The Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile''; 2 volumes, John Lane. *''Topukapu Kyūden No Hikari To Kage'', 29 pages. *''Anthropological Notes on the Sotadic Zone of Sexual Inversion Throughout the World Including Some Observations on Social and Sexual Relations of the Mohammedan Empire, by Richard F. Burton, with Photographs of Anthropological Rarities... and Rare Burton Collectanea'' (n.d., 1930s?), The Falstaff Press, 95 pgs (edited anonymously by Penzer and privately printed) ''Original works'': *''Mining and Industrial Articles'' (1919) *''Cotton in British West Africa, Including Togoland and the Cameroons'' (1920),

Federation of British Industries The Federation of British Industries (FBI) was an employers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by the Midlands industrialist Dudley Docker in 1916 as the United British Industries' Association, but renamed later that same year, it was in ...

*''The Tin Resources of the British Empire'' (1921), W. Rider, 358 pages *''The Mineral Resources of Burma'' (1922), G. Routledge & Sons, Limited *''The Library of Impostors'' (1926), Robert Holden & Company *''The Harēm: An Account of the Institution as it Existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans with a History of the Grand Seraglio from its Foundation to the Present Time'' (London: Harrap, 1936) *''The Book of the Wine-Label'' (1947), Home & Van Thal, 143 pages. *''Poison-Damsels and other Essays in Folklore and Anthropology'' (1952) (aka ''Poison Damsels : Thieves, Sacred Prostitution and the Romance of Betel Chewing''); Privately printed for C. J. Sawyer; 319 pp. (An analysis of folklore regarding "poison-damsels" of India, " The Tale of Two Thieves",

sacred prostitution Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, cult prostitution, and religious prostitution are rites consisting of paid intercourse performed in the context of religious worship, possibly as a form of fertility rite or divine marriage (). Scholars ...

in India and

betel-chewing Betel nut chewing, also called betel quid chewing or areca nut chewing, is a practice in which areca nuts (also called "betel nuts") are chewed together with slaked lime and betel leaves for their stimulant and narcotic effects. The practic ...

in India,

Somadeva Bhaṭṭa The ''Kathāsaritsāgara'' ("Ocean of the Streams of Stories") (Devanagari: कथासरित्सागर) is a famous 11th-century collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold in Sanskrit by the Shaivite Somadeva. ...

(11th century author),

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

.) * ''

Paul Storr Paul Storr (baptised 28 October 1770 in London – 18 March 1844 in London) was an English goldsmith and silversmith working in the Neoclassical and other styles during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His works range from ...

: The Last of the Goldsmiths'', with a foreword by Charles Oman, London: Batsford, 1954 ** ''

1771-1844: Silversmith and Goldsmith'', London, 1971, reissue of the 1954 book by Spring Books/Littlehampton Book Services, New York ; 292 pages. *''An Index of English Silver Steeple Cups'',(195?);

Society of Silver Collectors A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. So ...

, 23 pages *''Catalogue of the Extensive Library of Books on Silver and the Goldsmiths' Art and General Subjects'' (1961),

Christie, Manson & Woods Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémis, t ...

; 37 pages. ''Articles'' *Three articles on the

Warwick Vase The Warwick Vase is an ancient Roman marble (partially restored) vase with Bacchic ornament that was discovered at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli about 1771 by Gavin Hamilton, a Scottish painter-antiquarian and art dealer in Rome, and is now in the ...

in: ''

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

'' 62 (1955:183ff) and 63 (1956:18ff, 71ff).

References

External links

Norman Mosley Penzer Papers (''ca.'' 1911-1946)
@ Davidson Library,

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning " Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West ...

.
Norman Mosley Penzer Papers (1919-1928)
@ Rare Book & Manuscript Library,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Penzer, Norman Mosley 1892 births 1960 deaths British orientalists British bibliographers English orientalists English travel writers Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Sanskrit–English translators 20th-century translators