Íslenzk tunga - 01.01.1959, Page 41

.) ÓMSVÍKINGA SAGA
39
vised their translation;37 second, that, if he did so, any Icelandic
notes or drafts for his work would naturally be used in making a
translation from the Latin; similarly, third, that, if in his Latin work
he incorporated material from a vernacular source, he (or any
translator who recognised its provenance) would in translating
simply turn to that source again and copy it with such modifications
as his own composition made necessary.38 Similarity in Icelandic
phrasing might result if the two first assumptions are correct;
distinctive orthographic and linguistic features might be apparent,
even in an Icelandic version of parts of a Latin work, if the third
assumption is correct.
If I (a) in 291 could be regarded as a much revised version of an
adaptation of a vernacular source (Skjold.) used in a translation
from Latin (Gunnlaug’s Óláfs saga), this might go some way towards
explaining its peculiar features. The assumption would be on the
lines that I (a) originally accompanied I (b—c), but in a rather
different form, and that, when it was revised by the man who com-
bined parts I and II of Jvs., enough old forms were left to demon-
37 Cf. Sigurður Nordal, „Sagalitteraturen," Litteraturhistorie; Norge og
Island (Nordisk Kultur, VIII:B; Stockholm, Oslo and Kfíbenhavn 1953), 203.
It may he added that there is no valid reason for supposing that Gunnlaugr was
incapable of writing decent Icelandic, or that a translation from Latin,
especially an early one, need show a Latinate style; cf. Widding, 4—5; P. G.
I'oote, The Pseutlo-Turpin Chronicle in Iceland (London Mediæval Studies:
Monograph No. 4; London 1959), 55—56. (The use of domina, on the other
hand, (see p. 28 above) might perhaps suggest an ultimate Latin original).
38 Cf. the extensive loans from already extant translations made by the editor
of the B-version of Karlamagnús saga while also making independent use of the
same Latin source (see Foote, The Pseudo-Túrpin Chronicle, 20—24). This
will probably also be found to provide the hest explanation of, e.g., the literal
quotation of íslendingabók in Jóns saga ens helga (Biskupa sögur, I, 153, 157—
158, 173; cf. 219, 230—231, 246; it may be noted that in general the text in AM
234 fol. is closer to Islb. than that in Stock. perg. 5 fol., which would he in
keeping with the recent suggestions that the latter is further removed from the
original translation than the former; see Einar Ól. Sveinsson, Dating the Ice-
landic Sagas (London 1958), 109, note 1; Widding, 4—5).