Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 126

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GRIPLA
7. The “ok — ok — ok — ok” construction
As these examples show, the paratactic style often takes the form of a string of
independent clauses or clausal elements — like a series of verbs govemed by
the same subject — joined by the conjunctions ok and en, which must be
among the most frequent words in the saga.23 A close translation, in my view,
will want to keep the oks and the ens and all the independent clauses.
This construction is used less commonly in direct speech than in narrative,
where it can be an effective way of moving quickly through a series of events.
gerði þá margr sem vant var atfara tilfundar vil Njál, en hann lagði
þat til mála manna, sem ekki þótti líklegt, at eyddusk sóknir ok svá
varnir, ok varð afþví þræta mikil, er málin máttu eigi lúkask, ok riðu
menn heim afþingi ósáttir. (97.242)
Hon [Hildigunnr] tók skikkjuna ok þerrði þar með blóðit allt ok vafði
þar í blóðlifrarnar ok braut svá saman skikkjuna ok lagði í kistu sína.
(112.282)
Nú er þat til máls at taka, er Kári er, at um sumarit eptirfór hann til
skips síns ok sigldi suðr um sæ ok hófupp gQngu sína í Norðmandi ok
gekk suðr ok þá lausn okfór aptr ina vestri leið ok tók skip sitt í Norð-
mandi ok sigldi norðr um sjá til Dofra á Englandi. (159.462)
In the third instance, two of the translators break the passage into separate sen-
tences — three sentences in B-H and two (one broken up by a semi-colon) in
MM-HP. The other two translators keep all seven “ands” and thereby the
breathlessness of this long sentence. Cook has:
To tell now about Kari: the following summer he went to his ship and
sailed south across the Channel and began his pilgrimage in Nor-
mandy and walked south and received absolution and retumed by the
westem route and took over his ship in Normandy and sailed north
across the Channel to Dover in England.
23 A modem writer who has made excellent use of the “and — and — and” device is Vladimir Nabo-
kov: “He met five buses, and in each of them clearly made out Liza waving to him through a
window as she and the other passengers started to file out, and then one bus after another was
drained and she had not tumed up.” Pnin (London: Penguin Books, 1960): 44 — see also 112, 145.