Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Blaðsíða 132
130
ed, if only because of the lexical variation between terms
such as frœndi and the only partially corresponding kinship
terms in English. Do translators then attempt to offer an
alternative means of maintaining this obviously crucial
accelerating use of the kinship indicators?
An indication can be gained by checking Press’s trans-
lation, which as previous quotations have indicated, most
often attempts to follow the form and lexis of the original
text closely.
After returning to his “noble relations” in Iceland,
Kjartan is urged by his father Óláfr to accept an invitation
to visit Bolli and Guðrún at Laugar and “not to show that
he was angry with his kinsmen” (see previous quote from
p.134).
Call this to mind, Kjartan, that you have loved no man so much as
your foster-brother Bolli, and it is my wish that you should come,
for things will soon settle themselves between you kinsmen, if you
meet each other. (P 155)
Here the references are maintained, even though the
wording differs. Not so in the next instance (137), where
Kjartan’s sister Þuríðr offers him timely advice:
It is told me, brother, that you have been rather silent all the winter,
and men say it must be because you are pining after Gudrun, and set
veginn, bóndi minn (54) and Gráta mun ek Gísla, bróður minn (116) (the
page references given are from the íslenzk fornrit edition). The repeated use
of the term frcendi in apposition in the above sequence from Laxdœla saga
would certainly offer support for her thesis.
In such a case, preserving the apposition as such is by no means a sine
qua non for translators; the important thing is to note the presence of such
strong emotion since, as Heinrichs herself suggests, “Storytellers and audi-
ence, on the other hand, stand in a certain tradition which also means that
they are used to the elements of storytelling traditional to a certain period.
The apposition formula in saga-writing may be one of the traditional ele-
ments which the author knew how to handle, and the audience how to appre-
ciate.” (Heinrichs 1972:30).