Gripla - 01.01.2002, Síða 127

ON TRANSLATING SAGAS
125
Here is a shorter example of the typical use of ok in an action scene:
ríðr Otkell á hann ofan ok rekr sporann við eyra Gunnari ok rístr hann
mikla ristu, ok hlœddi þegar rnjpk. (53.134)
Dasent: Otkell rides down upon him, and drives one of the spears into
Gunnar’s ear, and gives him a great gash, and it bleeds at once
much.
B-H: Otkel rode down upon him and grazed Gunnar’s ear with one of
his spurs. That produced a long gash which immediately began to
bleed very much.
MM-HP: Otkel, who was wearing spurs, rode into him. His spur struck
Gunnar’s ear, making a deep gash that bled freely at once. (1999:
Otkel rode into him; his spur struck Gunnar’s ear and made a deep
gash. Blood poured from it at once.)
Cook: Otkel rode at him and his spur struck against Gunnar’s ear and
made a big gash, and blood flowed at once.
Again, Dasent and Cook preserve the “ands” and the four separate staccato
statements; B-H keep only one “and,” and MM-HP manage to do without
them entirely, creating a totally different structure: two sentences, one with a
relative clause and the other with a participial phrase.
One of the most famous sentences in the saga, this time in direct discourse,
uses the “and—and” device:
“Fpgr er hlíðin, svá at mér hefir hon aldri jafnfggr sýnsk, bleikir akrar
ok slegin tún, ok mun ek ríða heim aptr okfara hvergi.” (75.182)
Dasent: “Fair is the Lithe ; so fair that it has never seemed to me so
fair; the com fields are white to harvest, and the home meadow is
mown ; and now I will ride back home, and not fare abroad at all.”
B-H: “Fair is the slope, fairer it seems than I have ever seen it before,
with whitening grain and the home field mown; and I shall ride
back home and not go aboard [sic] at all.”
MM-HP: “How lovely the slopes are,” he said, “more lovely than they
have ever seemed to me before, golden comfields and new-mown
hay. I am going back home, and I will not go away.” (1999: “How
lovely the hillside is — more lovely than it has ever seemed to me