Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1959, Side 24
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translations written in a simple and plain style, the explanation is probably
that the writers were not able to imitate the rhetorical style of the Trist-
rams saga. They had to fail back on their own language, and we may
occasionally find reminiscences of the colloquial idiom of the fornaldar-
sggur in some translated sagas. In the Norwegian literature of the 13th
and early 14th centuries we may therefore distinguish three types of style:
(a) The real “Court Style”, an ornate, strongly rhetorical, and usually
flexible and effective style, used in the Tristrams saga, the Elis saga, the
Strengleikar, and the Konungs Skuggsja, whose author is by far the
greatest master in this field.
(b) A more colloquial “Translator’s Prose”, in which rhetorical devices
are used less frequently, and reminiscenses of the language of the forn-
aldarsggur occur. There are, of course, many intermediate stages between
(a) and (b). The style of most parts of the Karlamagnus saga and the
Pidreks saga is typical “Translator’s Prose”, while the Flores saga ok
Blankiflur has a more rhetorical flavour.
(c) At the end of the century the “Court Style” becomes more man-
nered, Latin syntax is imitated, and translations from Latin occasionally
follow the original text so closely that they are almost unreadable. It is
quite clear that this style is a conscious attempt to imitate Latin, and is
not due to clumsiness on the part of translators: their knowledge of the
foreign language is generally good, and if their style is less direct and to
us much less pleasant than that of the earlier translations, it is probably
because their stylistic ideals were very different from ours. Examples of
this “Late Style” are found in the Clårus saga, and, at its worst, in the
translation of St. Jerome’s Vitae Patrum Sanctorum Ægyptiorum28, and
it is used in the works written at the time of Håkon V (1299—1319).
This stylistic development can be followed, not only in the literature of
the period, but in the letters from the King to his subjects as well. Thus
in a letter from the King to Bishop Åskell of Stavanger, written between
1226 and 1254, we find a phrase of this kind:-------lårdom oc lendom,
buandum oc bupagnvm, verandum oc vidcomandum etc., and later:-----------
pessa heims til fridar oc farsaldar, annars heims til ailifs fagnadar (Dipi.
Norv. I no. 51). In the letters of King Håkon V there are numerous
examples of the use of hverr as a relative pronoun; thus in a letter to the
Church of St. Mary in Oslo:--------af ter f>vi sem pat bref vattar er ver
Publ. by Unger in Heilagra Manna Sogur vol. II pp. 335-671.