Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1967, Page 73

UNDERSTATEMENT IN OLD ENGLISH AND OLD ICELANDIC
55
abode. That friend suffers
great grief; he remembers too
often a more joyful dwelling).
We are inevitably struck by sud-
^en. c h a n g e from the intensely
dreary psychological landscape to
the quiet remark that “he remem-
bers too often a more joyful dwell-
ing.”
A similar use of a comparison that
amounts to an understatement may
he observed in Andreas, when the
Uhristian hero, beset by the heathen
^ermedonians, cries out to God in
his pain:
Næfre ic geferde mid fréan
willan / under heofonhwealfe
heardran drohfoð ... (I never
experienced, with the will of
the Lord, under the heaven a
harder way of life).
His complaint is that he has never
experienced “a harder way of life,”
when he is actually at the point of
suffering death. In an even more ir-
^eyocable plight, Lucifer, in “Genesis
i having been cast from heaven,
^ ong with his followers, into the
lery pit of hell, remarks after de-
Scribing the place:
fc á ne geseah / láðran land-
Scipe. Líg ne áswámað / háí
°fer helle ... (I never saw
^ore hostile landscape; flame
^oes not cease, hot over hell).
Uis statement—that “he has never
Seen more hostile landscape” — is
eertainly a mild one, in view of the
et that he has been in heaven until
ecently. Later, when Satan appeals
to his retainers to seek ways to
damage God’s creation, he says:
Gif ic ánigum þegne þéoden-
mádmas/géara forgéafe þen-
den wé on þan gódan rice/
gesælige sælon and hæfdon
úre setla geweald,/þonne hé
mé ná on léofran tíd léanum
ne meahte/míne gife gyldan..
(If I gave noble treasure to
any retainer, formerly, when
we sat happy in t h a t good
kingdom and had possession
of our seats — then he cannot
ever repay my gift with offer-
ings in a better time (than
now)).
He pleads modestly: if anyone
owes him a debt of gratitude for
favors received in better days, “he
could not choose a better time” to
repay the debt.
A different kind of strong senti-
ment is suggested through under-
statement in “Finnsburh.” Rather
than despair, overconfidence — in
view of subsequent events — is ex-
pressed by Sigeferth, the attacker,
when he challenges the unprepared
defenders of a hall:
. . . ðé is gýl hér witod,
swæþer ðú sylf to me sécean
wylle.
The speaker is confident of vic-
tory, but his way of stating this is
indirect: “For you it is already or-
dained whichever (of two possibili-
ties: victory or death) you will seek
from me.”
Such understatements in the utter-
ances of characters in dramatic situ-