Studia Islandica - 01.06.1957, Side 54

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should select one from the Edda. Nor is it impossible
that his learned friend, Halldór Hjálmarsson, may have
had something to do with the poet’s choice. At any rate
we know, as already mentioned, that once having selected
the fornyrðislag, Þorláksson was urged by the Icelandic
Literature Society to keep his verse form (meter and
rhyme) as close to the old as possible. Neither must it
be overlooked that the fornyrðislag is frequently used in
the epic poems of the Edda in a highly impressive fashion.
And although Paradise Lost contains many argumenta-
tive passages, that great poem is in many respects Ho-
meric. (Cf. J. A. Scott, Homer and His Influence, Boston,
1925). All things considered, Þorláksson could hardly
have made a better choice. In that connection the follow-
ing statement by Bertha S. Phillpotts is of special interest:
“If we print English blank verse with a space at the
caesura, as between the two short lines of the ancient
Germanic epic metre, we can find examples of Miltonic
verse which is Eddic in form.” And she goes on to show
by illustrations how this can be done.1)
Being the oldest Norse verse form, the fornyrðislag is al-
so the least complicated, possessing none the less a simpli-
city and elevation which make it not an unfitting vehicle
for Milton’s dignity and sublimity. Yet, the fornyrðislag
has its drawbacks. Though it has the merit of freedom
and flexibility, nevertheless, in Paradise Lost, as in the
Essay on Man, the alliteration causes the translator at
times to render the thought of the original inaccurately,
as has been seen above, and also to expand. “Grieved”
(IV, 28) is rendered “yfirklæddum með angursemi”.
“Evil be thou my Good” (IV, 110) is translated: “þú
skalt í þess stað, þá, hit vonda gjörast mér jafnan gott
upp héðan” (Thou shalt then, in its stead, evil, ever hence
become my good). Clearly, the terseness of the original is
1) Edda and Saga, 1931, pp. 35-36.