Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 129

ON TRANSLATING SAGAS
127
on the lookout and posted themselves so that they could not be
seen themselves.
MM-HP: They rode east that day into the mountains north of the glac-
ier, never using the main track, and down to Skaptriver-tongue,
keeping well above all the farms on the way to Skapt River. There
they led their horses into a hollow and kept close watch while re-
maining out of sight themselves. (1999: no change in syntax)
Cook: That day they rode east into the mountains north of the glacier,
but never rode on the common path, and then down into Skaftar-
tunga and above all the farms as far as the Skafta river, and there
they led their horses into a hollow and kept on the lookout and
placed themselves so that no one could see them.
The Icelandic has six oks and ens, and Cook and Dasent have the same num-
ber, thus keeping the sentence structure of the original. B-H keep most of
them, but replace one with the present participle “skirting,” a convenient way
of linking events in English, but quite out of keeping with saga style. MM-HP
go even further than B-H in the use of the present participle, with not one but
three: “using,” “keeping” and “remaining.” The result is fluent modem Eng-
lish, but the style is radically different.
Here is a shorter example, from the episode of the buming:
En er Helgi heyrði þetta, kastaði hann skikkjunni; hann hafði haft
sverð undir hendi sér ok hjó til manns, ok kom í skjgldinn, ok afsporð-
inn ok fótinn með. (129.329-30)
Dasent: But when Helgi heard that, he cast away the cloak. He had got
his sword under his arm, and hewed at a man, and the blow fell on
his shield and cut off the point of it, and the man’s leg as well.
B-H: But when Helgi heard that he threw off the skirt. He had been
holding a sword under his arm. He now struck at one of the men
and the blow cut off the lower point of the shield, and with it, the
man’s leg.
MM-HP: When Helgi heard this, he threw off the cloak; he was carry-
ing a sword under his arm, and now he struck at one of the men,
slicing off the bottom of the shield and severing his leg. (1999:
When Helgi heard this he threw off the cloak; he had been carrying
a sword under his arm, and now he stmck out at one of the men and