Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 131

ON TRANSLATING SAGAS
129
The effect of this construction is to create a movement from the less vivid to
the more vivid, to produce “a heightening of the tension; the indirect discourse
leads up to the thing which is to be emphasized.”25
In a literal translation, indirect discourse should be kept in indirect dis-
course, likewise for direct discourse, and the shift from one to the other should
be preserved. This has generally been observed by translators, but occasion-
ally the temptation to choose the greater immediacy of direct discourse has not
been resisted:
Hgskuldr bað hann fyrir ráða, ok spurði, hvar hann mundi helzt á
leita. (97.240)
MM-HP: “I leave it in your hands,” said Hoskuld. “Where are you
thinking of seeking a match?” (1999: Höskuld bade him decide,
and asked where he thought it best to look.)
The shift from indirect to direct has been variously handled:
Flosi segir henni bónorðit. Hon kvezk vera kona skapstór, — “ok veit
ek eigi, hversu mér er hent við þat, erþar eru svá menn jyrir, en þat þó
eigi síðr, at sjá maðr hefir ekki mannaforráð.” (97.241)
Dasent: Flosi toid her of the wooing, but she said she was a proud-
hearted woman.
“And I know not how things will tum out between me and men of
like spirit; but this, too, is not the least of my dislikes, that this man
has no priesthood or leadership over men.”
B-H: Flosi told her about the proposal, but she answered that she was
a woman of very proud mind — “and I am not sure how I shall
behave in the matter, seeing on the one hand, men of such impor-
tance, and what is still more significant, that this man has no posi-
tion of leadership among men.”
MM-HP: When she arrived Flosi told her of the proposal.
“I have my pride,” said Hildigunn, “and I am not sure whether this
proposal suits me, considering the kind of people involved — par-
ticularly since this is a man without authority.”
25 Margaret Jeffrey, The Discourse in Seven Icelandic Sagas (Bryn Mawr, 1933): 20. See also
Irmgard Netter, Die direkte Rede in den Islandersagas (Leipzig, 1935): 27.