Gripla - 01.01.2002, Síða 119

ON TRANSLATING SAGAS
117
“fling” Þorbrandr off the roof rather than straightforwardly “throw” him. This
principle also applies to combinations like góðar gjafir, which appears ap-
proximately fourteen times (depending on the manuscript). Dasent consistent-
ly translates this as “good gifts,” and so do I. B-H translate variously as “good
gifts,” “fine gifts,” “splendid gifts,” “goodly presents” and “fine presents.”
MM-HP translate it with slightly less diversity, as “good gifts,” “fine gifts”
and “handsome gifts” (in the 1999 version there are no more “handsome gifts”
and only one instance of “fine gifts”). There is no need for elegant variation in
this case.
The saga contains many formulas and repeated phrases, like Nú er þar til
máls at taka, nú er ór vgndu at ráða, njóttú heill handa, eitt skal yfir okkr
báða ganga and mál er komit í ónýtt efni. A literal translator will feel the need
to duplicate these repetitions, some of which may be aesthetically significant.
The noun liðveizla (“help”) is an important one in this saga where so much
time is spent gathering forces. On two occasions in close proximity (65.162
and 66.164) liðveizla is joined with atganga, and though this repetition may
not be significant, I have translated “help and backing” in both places; B-H,
followed by MM-HP, have “help and support” in the first occurrence, and
“support” in the second (1999: “help and support” in both).
Here is an example of a longer phrase, repeated once, which is more sig-
nificant and should be translated the same way on each occasion: at the end of
Ch. 42, Rannveig, Gunnarr’s mother, wams Sigmundr — who has killed
Þórðr leysingjason — against taking any more orders from Hallgerðr:
“En efHallgerðr kemr annarri flugu í munn þér, þá verðr þat þinn
bani” (42.109).
At the beginning of Ch. 44, when Gunnarr arrives home from the Alþingi, he
speaks to Sigmundr using the same expression:
“En þó hefi ek nú ggrvan þik sáttan, ok skyldir þú nú eigi annarri
flugu láta koma ímunn þér’’ (44.111).
A literal translation would highlight this repetition, but this is how it has been
translated:
Dasent: “But if Hallgerda makes thee take another fly in thy mouth,
then that will be thy bane” (Ch. 42); “But still I have made peace