Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1991, Side 75

GEORGE WEBBE DASENT
75
we have mutilated, and in some respects wellnigh forgotten, thc
speech of our ancestors, and have got instead a monstrous mosaic,
a patchwork of various tongues which we have picked up and
pieced together as we went along. (p.iv)
If English as a language was to be saved as it sank still further
into the mire, under the influence of popular mid nineteenth-
century novels (‘just so many mints for forging base and barbarous
words’; p.v), the way it was taught in Victorian schools would need
fundamental reform. A great effort would be required on the part
of teachers to reeducate themselves:
In my opinion a man who could teach English with comfort to
himself and profit to his hearers - a man in short who will earnestly
do his dayswork and not make a job of it - should have a thorough
knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman, of our Old,
Middle, and New English, beside a considerable proficiency in the Old
Norse [my italics], and early German tongues. (p.vi)
It was precisely in order to assist scholars in developing this
‘considerable proficiency in Old Norse’ that Dasent had translated
Rask’s Anvisning:
Should the present translation be instrumental in furthering
this good work, the pains spent on it will be aptly repaid; putting
aside the study of Old Norse for the sake of its magnificent
literature, and considering it merely as an accessory help for the
English student, we shall find it of immense advantage, not only in
tracing the rise of words and idioms, but still more in clearing up
many dark points in our early History. (p.vii)
The 1861 preface to The Story of Bnrnt Njal makes it clear that,
during the period of Dasent’s residence in Stockholm (1840-5), he
had not only been working on his translation of the Grammar, but
had also been familiarising himself with the ‘magnificent litera-
ture’ of Old Norse. In 1842 he published a translation of material
from Snorri Sturluson’s prose Edda, and much of the first draft of
his Njála translation had been completed by 1843. It has been
plausibly suggested4 that Séra Olafur Pálsson (1814—76), tem-
porarily in Stockholm during the summer of 1841 whilst transcrib-
ing manuscripts, may have played an important part in helping
Dasent to learn Icelandic. The first fruits of such tuition may well
4. Snæbjörn Jónsson, „Hver kenndi Dasent íslensku,“ Lesbók Morgunblaðsins (1956), pp.
168-9.