Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Page 113
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Thereupon Vigdís goes indoors and to a chest which belonged to
Thórd, and there at the bottom she finds a heavy money bag. She takes
the bag out and goes out with it to where Ingjald is and tells him to take
his money. Ingjald is all smiles and reaches his hand out for the purse.
Vigdís flings the bag up in his face, striking him on the nose, so that
blood falls onto the ground. (A 34)
Arent offers no explanation for her decision to use the
present tense in some instances and not in others. The
above passage is, in fact, an exception - one of the few
instances where she makes this attempt. A comparison with
the corresponding passage translated by Magnússon and
Pálsson demonstrates the superiority of the latter in pre-
serving the necessary dimensions of status and orientation.
Despite the fact that they make no attempt to imitate the
tense usage of the original, or to my mind not the least
because of this fact, their version retains the tempo if not
the tempus of the original and is convincing in English:
Vigdis went indoors to a chest that belonged to Thord and there, at the
bottom, she found a heavy purse. She took the purse and went out with
it to Ingjald, and told him to take his money. Ingjald cheered up at this
and held out his hand for it. Vigdis raised the purse and stmck him on
the nose with it, drawing blood; (MP 74)
Attempts to use the historical present in English cannot
help but make the narrative sound folksy and quaint,
almost illiterate. This is not a tense used characteristically
in English for written narrative, struggle though the trans-
lator will to put it to use. Attempts in this direction are try-
ing to preserve parole characteristics where they should be
looking for the underlying langue significance.
In a review of George Johnston’s version of Gísla saga
(where Johnston attempts to imitate the tense usage wher-
ever possible, and in many instances where it should have
really been considered impossible), Hermann Pálsson
clearly states his position on the translator’s attempt to pre-
serve the tense shifts of the original:
L