Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1981, Blaðsíða 185
På var hann svå mjok syrgjandi, at aldri beiQ hann sh'kan
harm,
ok snerisk hann })egar upp til veggjar ok mælti på med
harmsfullri roddu:
“Nu ertu, Isond, mik hatandi.
Ek em nu syrgjandi, er {>u vilt ekki til min koma,
en ek sakir Jnn deyjandi, er Jju vildir ekki miskunna sott
minni.
Ek em nu syrgjandi sott mina ok harmandi, er vildir ekki
koma at ftugga mik.”
Erysvar kalladi hann /sond, unnustu sina ok nefndi å nafn, en
hit fjorda sinn gaf hann upp ond sina med lifi sinu. (ch. 99, p.
197)
(He was afflicted with such grief that he had never endured such
sorrow before. And he turned toward the wall at once and spoke in
a grief-choked voice: “Now you hate me, Isond. I grieve because
you will not come to me, and I die for your sake since you would
not take pity on my affliction. And now I grieve and mourn my
affliction because you would not come to comfort me.” Thrice he
called Isond, his beloved, and named her by name, and the fourth
time he gave up his spirit and his life.)
The prose and rhythm of this passage are heavy indeed. To one accus-
tomed to the lucidity and directness of classical Icelandic prose, the parti-
cipial series is offensive to the ear, but “there can be little question that
the stylistic and esthetic intention of the translator was to heighten and to
intensify the emotional impact of the passages in question upon his audi-
ence.”45 Tristram’s speech is meant to convey his struggle with death and
his despair. After having clung to life until Isond might come to him, he
now turns toward the wall and away from life. The unwieldiness, as it
were, of the present participle alone, its laboriousness, conveys symboli-
cally Tristram’s drawn-out agony, the more so since the participle depicts
primarily Tristram’s State of mind - only once is it used about Isond, but
precisely to indicate that she is the source of Tristram’s grief. Through
the distribution and use of the participle, a cause-and-effect relationship
between Isond’s State of mind, that is to say, Tristram’s perception of it -
hatandi - and Tristram’s condition is established. The rhythmic and elegi-
45 Schach, “Style and Structure,” p. 77.
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