Studia Islandica - 01.06.1957, Page 14

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him that my countrymen would not have forgiven me,...
had I passed through this part of the island without
paying him a visit, he replied, that the translation of
Milton had yielded him many a pleasant hour, and often
given him occasion to think of England; but as his resi-
dence was so far north, and he had now lived so long
without seeing any of Milton’s countrymen, he had not
entertained the most distant idea that he ever was to be
favoured with such a gratification ... For some years past
our poet has been occupied with a translation of Klop-
stock’s Messias. The first fourteen books are ready, and
the fifteenth was begun last spring. He acknowledges,
however, the impossibility of his reaching the bold and
adventurous heights of that poet as happily as he had
done the flights of Milton, being now upwards of seventy
years of age.* 1) Alluding to his halting, he said, it could
not be a matter of surprise, since Milton had used him
several years as his riding horse, and spurred him un-
mercifully through the celestial, chaotic and infernal re-
gions.” 2) (Cf. Ljóðabók, II, “Hamförin,” pp. 511-514).
Henderson then goes on to describe Þorláksson’s geo-
graphical environment. As this is not without signific-
ance for the character and the inspiration of the poet,
his description is worthy of reproduction:
“The situation of his abode is truly poetic. It lies near
the junction of three beautiful valleys, ... the rivers of
which also join at the same time, and form a broad and ra-
pid stream. Close behind the farm is a number of beautiful
cascades, at various heights up the mountains; and the
prospect is bounded on every side by stupendous moun-
neither be proved nor disproved.” Jón Þorláksson, Dánarminning,
p. 32 (footnote).
1) Cf. Ljóöabók, II, p. 523, a stanza written to H. Stephensen,
where the same thought is expressed. In my estimation this is only
modesty on the poet’s part or a mistaken idea of his. Cf. Dr. Alex-
ander Jóhannesson’s estimate of the translation of Messias, J. Þor-
láksson, Dánarminning, p. 170.
2) E. Henderson, Iceland, etc., Edinburgh 1818, I, pp. 94—100.