Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Page 293

ISLANDISCHE LITERATURGESELLSCHAFT 287
Mit seinem Freunde Árni Helgason erörterte Rask öfters, wie
wiinschenswert und notwendig es sei, eine Gesellschaft zur För-
derung der Sprache und Literatur des Landes zu griinden, wobei
er hauptsáchlich an die altnordische Literatur dachte. Auf allen
seinen Reisen agitierte er eifrig fiir die Verwirklichung dieses
Gedankens, zu der man ihm von vielen Seiten Unterstiitzung
versprach; denn alle erkannten die Notwendigkeit, den Verfall
der alten Sprache zu verhindern, nicht zum mindesten in den
Stádten und Handelsplátzen, wo der Umgang mit den auslándi-
schen, zumeist dánischen, Handelselementen eine Gefahr bedeu-
tete. Bevor Rask Island verliess, hatte er die Griindung der
Gesellschaft vorbereitet, mit Árni Helgason als Vorsitzendem,
Landvogt Sigurður Thorgrimsen als Kassierer und Amtsrichter
Halldór Thorgrimsen als Schriftfiihrer.
Auf seiner Riickreise kam Rask nach Leith in Schottland,
wo er sich einige 'Wochen aufhielt, sowie nach Edinburgh, wo er
viele bedeutende Mánner kennen lernte. Rask benutzte die Ge-
legenheit, allenthalben Mitglieder der Gesellschaft zu werben, und
schrieb aus diesem Anlass folgenden Brief an die Englánder:
“For a pretty long time all the Gothic nations, in aemulation of one
another, have taken a peculiar care to preserve the antiquities of the whole
tribe of their common ancestors, as being nearly connected with their
national glory and a material branch of ancient history, very useful to
keep up the public spirit and interesting to men of letters. But I wonder
how they could overlook the noblest of all those sacred relicks and care-
lessly leave it to the all destroying injuries of time. This most valuable
remainder of Gothic antiquity, almost the only one preserved in Iceland,
is certainly the ancient general language of all the kingdoms of the North,
which is still spoken throughout that island to a truly astonishing degree
of purity and elegance. This I may pretend to ascertain for, having
travelled through the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden and parts of
Norway in order to study the languages and philological antiquities of the
North. I have now spent these two years in travelling around the island
of Iceland to inquire into the present state of the remarkable language
and in every corner of the country I have been able to converse with the
natives in the ancient scandinavian tongue, and I have found them reading
still the old sagas of the champions of the heroic age, nay there are
some songs of Edda celebrating the exploits of the heathen deities still
understood by every peasant boy with exception of a few difficult words.
But as the poverty of the people has increased, printing almost is fallen
into disuse, and the literature and language are certainly in a declining
state; the most valuable productions of wit and learning of later times,
existing only in manuskript and in danger of being lost for ever. As for
instance a most excellent poetical translation of Miltons Paradise lost,
of which only the two first books have been published. With a view
19*