Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Page 193

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language consciousness of a philologist or literary scholar.
This may even have been the result of contempt for many
of the restraints contemporary language would fain have
forced upon him.
One scholar, for instance, has described the translation
as “typical Veblen: much pretentious Latinity punctuated
here and there by an arresting homely word” (Stockton
1954:11) and plentiful evidence of the truth of his observa-
tion can be seen in passages like the following:
Þorgerðr kvað eigi lasta þurfa ok sagði Laugamenn til slíks gört
hafa eða meiri svívirðingar. (145): Thorgerd said there was nothing
to blame, and said also that the Lauga-folks had duly merited all or
more than this indignity. (V 164)
Var gefit fé til, at þeir skyldi vera ferjandi, en eiga eigi útkvœmt
(158): Composition was paid to make them lawfully transportable
out of the country, but without the right to return to Iceland (V 180)'
hann ... fekk alla þjónustu (229): he ... received the viaticum and
extreme unction (V 264) (although “he received the last rites” is
both easier to understand and comes closer to the original).
hat hefir mér komit í hug, frœndi, at þú munir staðfesta ráð þitt og
kvœnask. (11): I have been thinking, my dear, that you ought to set-
tle down and get married. (V 12)
Þorvaldr kvað hana ekki hóf at kunna ok sló hana kinnhest. (93):
Thorvald told her she was going too far, and boxed her ears. (V 108)
Þórólfr var hetja mikil ok átti góða kosti (21): Thorolf was a good
deal of a bully as well as a man of means (V 23)
In her introduction, Margaret Arent explains that she has
attempted to avoid the errors to which previous translators
had succumbed, “ranging from gross inaccuracies to too
archaic and mannered a style.” (Arent 1963:xxxix)
' Veblen apparently had a penchant for the term “composition” which he
used to translate fé in this instance and on p. 193, for bœtr on pp. 228 and
253, and for sœttir on p. 242.