Gripla - 01.01.2000, Page 89

THE BOOK OF JUDITH
87
(This is in fact an example of how the Icelandic text prunes away details
which serve to enhance the irony of the story. By emphasising the fact that
Achior is telling the truth, attention is drawn to the irony that Holofemes does
not believe him and punishes him for his sound advice, but is later taken in by
Judith’s lies, a fatal error which ultimately leads to defeat for the Assyrians.)
A more substantial abridgment occurs in speeches. The translator (or in
this case quite possibly the scribe) apparently had little patience with lengthy
monologues and so shortened speeches, prayers and hymns, even those of the
heroine herself. The Icelandic text usually retains the beginning of these but
leaves off at the earliest opportunity in order to continue telling the story
proper, as it were. A good example of this is Judith’s speech before the priests
of the Jews where the Vulgate verses 8.20-27 are left out of the translation al-
together, and further cuts may be seen atVulg. 9.16-19, 11.12-16and 16.2-
21. This tendency to cut down or to summarise material which is not strictly
relevant to the plot is well known from other Icelandic translations; it has for
example been discussed in relation to Stjóm II (Kirby 1986:56, Astás 1989:
63), the Book of Joshua (B-version) in Stjóm III (Fell 1973:121), and Gyð-
inga saga (Wolf 1995:cv-cx), all dated to the thirteenth century.
In terms of omission and abridgment the translator of Judith thus seems to
work in the same vein as translators of the late twelfth and thirteenth century.
When it comes to amplification and supplementation of the Vulgate text, the
translator is restrained compared with the editors of the younger parts of
Stjóm and of Gyðinga saga, not to mention some translators and copyists at
work in the fourteenth century who greatly expanded and omamented their
text (Astás 1987:98-99). The Judith translator does not introduce any sub-
stantial piece of extraneous material or commentary; he or she occasionally
adds a sentence, or part of a sentence, by way of explanation but this is more
often than not the result of a rearrangement of the syntax undertaken to
achieve an idiomatic translation.
764
Hann sendi þá sína menn ok erend-
reka til allra landa þeira er eigi voru
undir hans ríki, fyrst at herja þaðan
til Damasco ok Libano, til Karmelo
ok Cedar ok í Galilea ok allt á hinu
miklu heiði Esdrelon. Hann sendi
þá ok til Samarita heraðs ok fram um
Jordan allt til Jerusalem ok þaðan
Vulgata
et misit ad omnes qui habitabant in
Cilicia et Damasco et Libano et ad
gentes quae sunt in Carmelo et Ce-
dar et inhabitantes Galileam in cam-
po magno Hesdraelon et ad omnes
qui erant in Samaria et trans flumen
Iordanem usque Hierusalem et
omnem terram Iesse quousque per-