Eimreiðin - 01.09.1901, Side 76

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»No nobler man of heart and hand in all this land may be;
I wot there be few Icelanders of such renown as he.«
»Oh, thanks, my friends, have thanks, dear friends. for all your loyalty,
But I have friends in my own good land that long have mourned for me.
»For I left many a comrade bold in Iceland over the foam,
And sisters twain and a fair true love will joy to see me home.«
Out spake the serving-maiden, that bore the lads their ale,
»What ails our comely Sheriíf, that he turns red and pale?«
»If I turn red and pale my maid, ’tis that I think withal
•Of the tinkling of the mountain stream anear my father’s hall.
»Oh, often have I crossed the seas in mickle grief and pain,
But ne’er will I set foot on ship if I once win home again.
»The sun goes over all the earth like a lamp in God’s great hand;
He never sees a fairer sight than my own native land!
»There sits a bird by my father’s close and sings right cunningly;
'The thought of that sweet song of his strikes through the heart in me.«
He bowed his head upon his hands, they shook like an autumn leaf,
»1 never thought,« he said, »that joy could burn a heart like grief!«
He bowed the lower o’er the board, he felt his heart-strings crack:
»Oh, what is this betides me, lads, that all my sight grows black?«
Up there started the grey old steward, a woeful man was he:
»Out, alas, for our comely lord: There is no remedy.«
News is brought to the crowned king, in the fairest of his towns,
That he must choose another chief to rule the Iceland clowns.
»If that he died of joy, my lords, I wot more fool was lie;
He might have led a merry life in Iceland over the sea.
»He might have had lands and lordships, and a fair wife to his will,
And now has a sorry lodging beneath the burial-hill.
»Every bale will have its bote, God bring his soul to bliss,
And send to all good gentlemen a better end than this!«
Bók þessi er í mjög góðu bandþ og allur frágangur á henni er í bezta lagi.
//. P.
UM LÍF OG LIFNAÐARHÆTTI NORÐURLANDABÚA í FORNÖLD hafa þeir
Valtýr Guðmundsson og Kristian Kálund skrifað alllanga og lærða ritgerð í hið
mikla ritsafn Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (grundvallaratriði germanskrar
málfræði), útgefið (nú í 2. sinn) af Her?nann Paul háskólakennara í Miinchen. Rit-
gerð þessi er bygð á fornritum vorum (sögunum og lögunum) og ýmsum fornfræðis-
legum rannsóknum, og þótt hún sé ekki lengri en 73 bls., er meira á henni að græða
en ritum þeim, er áður hafa til verið um þetta sama efni, enda hafa þeir menn
unnið hér að verki, sem munu hafa verið manna færastir um það. Fyrir þá, er vilja
kynna sér. menning Islendinga í fornöld, er ritgerðin hinn bezti leiðarvísir og ágætis-
^rundvöllur fyrir menningarsögu íslands. M. P.