Studia Islandica - 01.06.1957, Page 51

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sauðum” (And after him is driven a swarm of herds,
long train, a great many cattle and sheep in plenty) A)
These and other similar inaccuracies are easily ac-
counted for. A great number of those consisting of more
than a word or a short phrase already existed in the
Danish and German translations upon which Þorláks-
son based his version. This is particularily true of the
Danish, which is, as already pointed out, very faulty. Oc-
casionally, however, the Icelandic translator deviates
from his models, rendering inaccurately phrases and lines
which are correct in the Danish and the German. His
knowledge of the German language seems, in some of
these cases, to have failed him, although the alliteration
may have played a part. A case where he has obviously
misunderstood the German is the following: “that in
quaternion run”, which he translates: “þjer sem ferhyrnt
mál þreytið” (you which run a quadrangular course).
The German: “die ihr im vierfachen Zirkel bewegt” is at
least much nearer to the original, if we may trust New-
ton’s intepretation, as noted by Verity: “that in a four-
fold mixture and combination run a perpetual circle, one
element continually changing into another.”
More frequently, Þorláksson’s deviations from his
models, especially the mistranslations of single words or
short phrases, are entirely due to the alliteration of his
Icelandic verse. Thus “torture” (I, 67), which is correct
in the Danish, he translates “vesöld” (misery) to alli-
terate with “ei von, né výls bót”, in the preceeding verse
line. Similarly, “repose” (V, 28) is rendered “unun” (de-
light) to alliterate with “sem alhugi minn”.
As already mentioned, and clearly borne out by the
detailed comparison, the inaccuracies are most numerous,
1) For more details and numerous examples, see Richard Beck,
Jón Thorláksson and His Translations frorn the English. A doctoral
dissertation, June, 1926, pp. 231 (Typewritten), Cornell University
Library, Ithaca, New York, on which this chapter is based.
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