Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands - Nýr flokkur - 01.01.1991, Page 88

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ANDREW WAWN
who will see „Northmen“ not „Norsemen“43 throughout. I am now
hard at work at the Orkney Saga and Guðbrandr will soon receive
the Icelandic text of Vol II. Write soon and believe me ever yours,
G.W.D.
Good Friday [1861] (in Lbs. MS 1839a 4to). Dear Thomsen. I
have today sent to M. de Bille44 four copies of Njal, 1 for you, one
for Guðbrandr, one for Rafn & one for the Icelandic Library
Society... I have written your names in each with a word or two. I
hope Bille will not refuse to send the parcel, but thc eight vols.
seem to me to weigh [...?] a hundred weight. The paper is so good
that it weighs very heavily. So now you will see the old fellow with
all his imperfections on his head & mind you judge charitably of
him... What do you say about Iceland. Either in June or July I shall
go I think.
[undated 2]. As far as I can see every ship that went to or from
Iceland made or left Norway as her first or last port. I do not feel
that any other King either of Denmark or Sweden laid a tax on
emigration but Harald Hárfager did. Nor do I hear that in any
other Scandinavian land was the country in danger of becoming
waste from the same cause.45 I must also say pace Rafn that Norrœn
as opposed to Dönsk according to my notion does mean Norse,
Norwegian, & not Northern, & finally I say all this to let you & him
know that ‘Old Norse’ can be defended & that if I use ‘Northmen’
in future it is merely for the sake of peace & quietness, & to avoid
the appearance of ambiguity now in a fact which was no matter of
ambiguity then. When I say ‘peace & quietness’ I mean that I liave
lived long enough to know that purely verbal controversies are the
curse of science. Life is too short for thern, & therefore I expect
that this explanation will be satisfactory to all whom it may concern
& that my sincere wish & endeavour to spread the fame & deeds of
the Scandinavian race may not be thwarted by any snappish verbal
43. Clearly a previous point of contention; see undated extract 2 above. Dasent’s earlier
practice is reflected in titles such as his contribution to the series Oxford Essays, ‘The
Norsemen in Iceland’ (1858), and his translation A Grammar of the lcelandic or Old Norse
Tongue (1843). Dasent in fact does only use „Northmen" in his Njála translation text - see
Preface, p.vii and passim.
44. Torben Bille (1819-83), Danish politician and diplomat; ambassador in London
1860-4.
45. This suggests Dasent’s familiarity with the opening chapter of íslendingabók.