Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Blaðsíða 87

85
Press’s decision to use “even” for both þótt and enn
impedes the reader’s understanding of the intimation of
rebuking tardiness contained in the king’s words. Nor does
Press avail herself of the opportunity of adding formality to
the conditional clause by reversing the word order with
“had you greeted us”. Here, as is generally the case, trans-
lators tend to aim at reproducing register through primarily
lexical and not syntactic means.
1) We would have been glad to accept your salutation, Hoskuld, had
it come somewhat earlier; but so be it anyway. (A 26)
Arent’s version uses the comparatively rare English sub-
junctive “so be it” to lend a note of solemnity. On the other
hand, in allowing the king’s remark to end with “anyway”,
she swoops down from formality to a more off-handed,
everyday intimacy nowhere in evidence in the original. A
similar treatment is accorded the second quote:
2) I shall not detain you here with us any longer than you desire, but
it won ’t be easy for us to get a man who can take your place. (A 26)
The use of the contracted form of the negative may stem
from the translator’s assumption that dialogue should be
rendered in a conversational or even colloquial tone. In that
case, one could ask, why contract in one instance and not
in the other?
This somewhat familiar or even “chatty” tone produced
by the use of contractions and other lapses into colloquial
idiom is not infrequent in Arent’s translation. They intro-
duce tones that are often lacking in the original: “Thórd
Ingunnarson got in thick with Thorvald and Gudrún” (A
85) is used to express Þórðr Ingunnarson gerði sér dátt við
þau Þorvald ok Guðrúnu (93). There are plenty of other
possibilities here, such as “made a point of making friends
with”, that would avoid the slang of Arent’s rendering. The
words of the generally stately matriarch Unnr djúpúðga því