Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Síða 92
I
arly discussion and disagreement have been provoked by the ambiguity
of the passage, which has been interpreted to mean that Tristram carved
the substance of the seventeen lines into the stick, or that the verses refer
to the content of a previous message, or that he etched only the letters of
his name into the hazelwood, but that the name alone was redolent
enough to evoke the associations and reminiscences alluded to in the
seventeen lines.39 Considering the extent and contradictory nature of
scholarly opinion on the subject of Tristram’s xylographic message, a
translator needed first and foremost to be an interpreter. The author of
Geitarlauf chose to read in the lines the words of a rather long message.
Tristram carved not only his name on the stick, but he also informed Isolt
that he
... hafde fiar lengi bedit hennar oc umlyz at spyria til hennar
oc vita med hverivm hætti hann mætti sia hana. fmi at hann
ma engum kosti liva on hennar. Sva ferr med ocr kvad hann
sem viduindill sa er binnz um heslivid. Medan ftessir tveir
vidir bua bader saman. fia liva oc bera lauf sitt. en sa er ftessa
vide skildi hvarn fra odrum. f>a deyr haslenn oc f)ui nest uid-
vinndillenn oc berr hvarki lauf. nema f>orna oc firir verdaz
bæde. Hin frida unnasta min. sva oc eftir f>eim hætti ero vit.
Ei ma ec lifa on f>in. oc ei f>u on min. (p. 66)
(... had long been waiting for her there and listening to detect her
approach and to know how he might see her, because he can by no
means live without her. “It goes with us,” he said, “as with the
honeysuckle that fastens itself around the hazel tree. As long as
these two trees are together they live and produce foliage, but if
anyone should separate these trees from each other, the hazel will
die and then the honeysuckle, and neither of them will produce
foliage; instead they will both dry up and perish. My beautiful
beloved, such and in the same way are we. I cannot live without
you, nor you without me.”)
We may find “something incongruous (not to say, indiscreet) in the idea
of Tristram busily covering a large piece of wood with a message, and
then leaving this conspicuous object by the highway as an advertisement
39 See Maurice Cagnon, “Chievrefueil and the Ogamic Tradition," Romania, 91 (1970),
pp. 238-48, for a review of criticism in respect to this passage.
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