Gripla - 01.01.2002, Page 145

ON TRANSLATING SAGAS
143
Epiphora (use of the same word or element at the end of successive words or
clauses):
Gunnarr ... var bláeygr ok snareygr og roði í kinnunum. (19.53)30
Dasent: He was blue-eyed and bright-eyed, and ruddy-cheeked.
B-H: He had sharp blue eyes and a ruddy complexion.
MM-HP: He had keen blue eyes, red cheeks, ... (1999: with ruddy
cheeks)
Cook: He was blue-eyed and keen-eyed and ruddy-cheeked,...
B-H and MM-HP eliminate the epiphora by combining two adjectives into a
single phrase. Cook follows Dasent very closely, but the effect is a series of
three hyphenated adjectives, when it would have been closer to the rhythm of
the original to have something like “he was blue-eyed and keen-eyed and his
cheeks were ruddy.”
Skarpheðinn ... var ... gagnorðr ok skjótorðr. (25.70)
Dasent: Skarphedinn ... had a great flow of words and quick utterance.
B-H: Skarphedin ... spoke trenchantly, [but often] rashly.
MM-HP: Skarp-Hedin ... was ... quick to speak and scathing (1999:
pointed) in his words.
Cook: Skarphedin ... spoke to the point and was quick to do so.
None of the translators, it appears, has even tried to duplicate the epiphora
here, illustrating — as often with scaldic poetry — the frequent impossibility
of capturing both the precise meaning and the sound pattem.
“Œritmun hann stórvirkr," segirNjáll, “en eigi veit ek, hvé góðvirkr
hann er." (36.96)
Dasent: “He will be a great worker enough, I daresay,” says Njal, “but
I do not know whether he will be such a good worker.”
30 In íslensk stílfræði, 280, this device is mentioned as characteristic of the descriptions in Njáls
saga. Reference is made there to Lars Lönnroth, "Det litterara portrattet i latinsk historiografi
och islandsk sagaskrivning,” Acta Philologica Scandinavica 27 (1965): 68-117, who traces
such descriptions to saints’ lives and Latin writings.