Júlia Májeková (27.12.1919, Vienna - 25.1.1991) studied at a grammar school in Ružomberok (until 1938) and then studied German and Slovak at the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1939, with the founding of the fascist Slovak Republic (led by Jozef Tiso, until 1944), this university changed its name to the Slovak University and several Czech professors were dismissed. However, Professor of German and English František Kalda (the founder of Czechoslovak Low Countries Studies at Charles University in Prague) was allowed to continue teaching, probably because there were not enough teachers in this field. Professor Kalda also taught comparative Germanic linguistics and offered Dutch as part of these classes. Júlia Májeková also followed this course as a student of Kalda. According to Májeková (see Kerlík 1977: 177), she was interested in Dutch because she wanted to supplement her basic knowledge of historical grammar of the Germanic languages and her philological courses in Gothic, Old and Middle High German with a course in Dutch from a comparative point of view. So initially she was interested in Dutch as a Germanic language. Only later did she also become acquainted with the literature and culture of the country.

In the academic year 1942-43 she was able to study at the University of Leipzig with a scholarship, but it is not clear whether she had contacts with Dutchmen there, perhaps she only studied Germanic literature. She graduated from the Slovak University in 1944. After she had finished her studies, she could start a postgraduate study of Dutch language and literature at the Faculty of Arts and Dutch literature in Leiden in the academic year 1947-1948, and later she studied in the Netherlands (1964) and Belgium (1967).

Májeková herself expressed a desire to teach, and for a short time (two years) she was able to work as a teacher at the secondary trade academies in Martin and Poprad, but she soon began her career as a translator and editor at the Tatran publishing house (1949-1977), and after retirement she worked at Lúč publishing house as a language editor and proofreader. 

Májeková made her debut as a translator in 1944 with a translation of the novel Herman Coene by the Flemish regional novelist Ernest Claes. In an interview (Kerlík 1977: 177) she said that during her studies she got an offer from Dr. Jozef Felix, who was the editor of the SPKK (Spoločnosť priateľov krásnych kníh, the Society of Friends of Fiction Books) to translate a certain Dutch novel. She later said that it was actually a Flemish novel. By the way, the novel itself was reviewed in several weekly and daily newspapers (see the links in the DLBT). Herman Coene is the first novel in Slovak that was not translated via an intermediary language (German and to a lesser extent French). This practice would still regularly occur during the communist period and in the case of children's literature, graphic novels and non-fiction even up to now.

Májeková had so much work with the translation of this novel that she did not take her final exams until two years later and could finally finish her studies with a postgraduate degree in Leiden. In the meantime, she had already been working for some time as an editor at Tatran publishing house.

Dr. Jozef Felix himself, who was a Romanist by training and who strongly contributed to the development of the subject of Romanistics in Slovakia, was known as a comparative literature scholar because in his time there was very little literature available in translation. He therefore realised the "need to intervene and coordinate translator activities respectively”. He thus wanted to systematically organise groups of translators for various languages (Žitný 2014: 225). The offer to provide the talented Májeková with a translation from Dutch can be seen in this perspective.

Májeková's choice of translated works places her among the most prominent Slovak translators (Žitný 2017). It was not long before this was also noticed nationally and internationally, and in 1978 she was awarded the prestigious Martinus Nijhoff Translation Award financed by the Prince Bernhard Fund. As it was not possible to get exit visa for Netherlands, she accepted the prize at the Dutch embassy in Prague. Both her acknowledgement and the jury report can be found on the website of the Prince Bernhard Fund. (online)

She also won prizes in the Netherlands. She was laureate of the Ján Hollý Translation Award in 1974, won for her translation of De gods gaan naar huis by A. den Doolaard (Bohovia sa vracajú). However, the Nijhoff Award jury report stated that the prize could also be considered an oeuvre prize because of her outstanding use of Slovak. It is true that the prize is usually awarded to a translator only once in his or her career.

In addition to her translated novels, Májeková also compiled the chapter on Dutch literature, Flemish literature and African literature in the volume of Dejiny svetovej literatúry (History of World Literature, 1963) and the entries on various Dutch and Flemish writers in the Malá encyklopédia spisovateľov sveta (Small Encyclopaedia of World Writers) in 1978.