Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1960, Page 277

261
ef J>ar er Så nockur madur, Sem Syner Sig i }>vi ad sla mig edur forfang giora,
f>a vil eg Jxiss manns hofud j Sundur mola I 4r.3-6
Ieh ward jetzimdt kiirtzlich vnuersehenlieh geargwilligt/ G Aiiij
mier var fyrir skømmu til giørt, I 4r. 15
but he was not fully convinced of the correctness of his translation,
so that where the word could be omitted, he jumped at the oppor-
tunity of doing so:
vff das ich von den Heyden nit geargwilliget oder gefanngen werde/ G Cij
vpa had ieg af heidingiunum ecki fanginn verdi I 27r. 21—22
Incidentally, this series of examples is one of several indications
pointing to the faet that the translator did not add the finishing
touch to his rendering.
Admittedly, this casuistic method is far from being infallible.
Strangely enough, the translator was unable to guess the meaning
of Zwerch “transverse direction” and of the term die Zwerch “trans-
versely”. The first time it occurs, the translation is a total failure,
also syntactically:
nym diss pferd vnd setze dich darauff/ vnd komme nahendt zu mir/ ob ieh
die zwerch vor dich sitzen kundte/ so mochstu mich wol hinfurn/ G C*
tak Jjennann hest, og Settu mig har vppa, komdu mier nær, ad eg bennann
keisara kallamagnus [there may have been an attempt to delete this word] fyrir
hig Setia kunni, ha getur hu flutt mig hiedann, I 25v. 16-19
The only explanation I can think of is that in Zwerch the translator
thought he found the word Zwerg, then assuming that this word as
used by the giant Ferakut must refer to the Emperor Charles. There
was no room for such a misunderstanding in the following two
examples, but the translator did not grasp the meaning of the word
here, either:
er setzt sich die zwerch flir jn/ wie er angezeygt het/ vnd reyt hinweg mit
grossem schmertzen/ G C*
hann Setti hann a bak, og Rydur j Burtu I 26r. 8
[Roland] legt den [o: the heathen] fur sich die zwerch vff sein Ross/ vnd furt jn
hinweg/ G Fv
[.. .] tok hann og hans hest og hafdi j burtu, I 73r.7-8