Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 124

122
GRIPLA
Standing out against the predominantly paratactic background are the
saga’s many complex sentences, the most complex of which tend to be in dir-
ect speech:
[Flosi:] “Sé ekþat gQrla, þó at vér dræpim Njál eða sonu hans, þá eru
þeir svá mikils háttar menn ok stórættaðir, at þar mun svá mikit eptir-
mál verða, at vér munum fyrir margs manns kné ganga verða ok biðja
oss liðsinnis, áðr vérkomim oss órþessum vanda.” (117.294)22
[Bjami Broddhelgason:] “Ek vil ok spyrja þik, Flosi, hvárt ngkkurr er
allmikill iQgmaðr ífQruneyti yðru, því at yðr eru tveir kostir til: annat-
hvárt at biðja sætta, ok er sá allgóðr, hinn er annarr at verja mál með
iQgum, ef má ok sé varnir til, þótt þat þykki með kappi at gengit.”
(138.364)
To preserve the style of the Icelandic original, including the contrast between
parataxis and hypotaxis, it is important to imitate the sentence structure. This
involves resisting the tendency to follow the hypotactic style of modem writ-
ten English.
Hann [Hrappr] varfQrull mjQk ok var aldri heima. (87.213)
Dasent: He was a great wanderer, and was never at home.
B-H: He was always on the go and never home.
MM-HP: But they saw little of him, for he was often away. (1999: But
he was always on the move and never at home)
Cook: He was often on the move and was never at home.
MM-HP, in contrast to the other three translators, create a dependent clause
which establishes a causal relationship between the elements: Hrappr’s being
away is the reason that his host and hostess see little of him. To justify the new
causal clause — it would be tautological to say that Hrappr was not much there
because he was always away — the independent clause is changed from “he was
never at home” to “they saw little of him,” another step away from literalness.
Here is another instance:
22
Flosi has some of the most complex sentences in the saga, perhaps reflecting his complex
moral and legal situation. For other examples see 123.314 and 128.325.