Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Qupperneq 192

190
“því at konungr sagði, svá at vér máttum heyra, at sá höfðingi hafi
í nótt borinn verit, er vér skulum nú á trúa, ef vér gerum eptir því,
sem konungr býðr oss.” Kjartan segir: “Svá leizk mér vel á konung
it fyrsta sinn, er ek sá hann, at ek fekk þat þegar skilt, at hann var
inn mesti ágætismaðr, ok þat hefir haldizk jafnan síðan, er ek hefi
hann á mannfundum sét; en miklu bezt leizk mér þó í dag á hann,
ok öll ætla ek oss þar við liggja vár málskipti, at vér trúim þann vera
sannan guð, sem konungr býðr, ok fyrir engan mun má konungi nú
tíðara til vera, at ek taka við trúnni, en mér er at láta skírask,” (122)
“For so said the king in the hearing of us all, that on this night that
chieftain was born on whom we are called to believe, if we do as the
king tells us.” Said Kjartan, “So well did the king impress me the
first time I saw him that I knew him at once for a man of mark and
of the highest honor; and the like has been the case ever since then,
whenever I have seen him at any gathering. But more than ever did
he seem right and good to me today; and I am now sure that it is
altogether for our best good faithfully to believe Him to be the true
God, for whom the king has spoken. And now it can by no means
be more to the king’s mind to have me take the faith than it is to my
mind to be baptized.” (V 138)
Veblen thus sees his own task as translator to be one of
matching the orientation of the original text, whether
heroic or sanctimonious. He attempts to represent the lan-
guage of the saga, which he has described as “idiomatic in
an extreme degree”, with a similar run of idiom in the
English language current in his time and province. On the
other hand, as has been indicated, one could often justly
question both his judgment of the original and his selection
of the “modern idiom” he makes use of.
Something of his flagrancy can perhaps be attributed to
sheer youthful enthusiasm: the translation was done in
1889-90 when Veblen himself was little more than a uni-
versity student although it was not published until four
years before his death in 1929. His translation, not unlike
his writings in general, reflect his lack of the specialised