Greinar (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.01.1943, Blaðsíða 167

163
XI.
Although an explanation of these hymns is given
and an attempt made to throw a light on their genesis,
this does but poor justice to their real merit. By this
same method hymns of little worth, without benefit to
anybody, could have been written. But here we are con-
fronted with the futility of describing the contents of
beautiful poetry without having access to the poems them-
selves, and in the case of Pétursson’s hymns, this is an
impossibility. The existing translations actually give only
a shadowy idea of their grandeur, although they are
beautiful in their own way.1)
The subject matter of the Passion-Hymns is the history
of the Passion, from the moment Jesus finishes the Hymn
of Praise and wrnlks with his disciples across the brook of
Kedron to the mount of Olives, until his tomb is sealed
and guards are put on watch.
This story is treated in fifty hymns. As a rule, and
especially in the first hymns, the text is rendered in verse,
a short passage at a time, and immediately interpreted in
one, two or more verses. It is these passages or sections
that might so easily have been composed one at a time.
As the work proceeds, the poet more frequently rhymes
the whole of the text at the outset, although this requires
several verses, and then the interpretation follows.. But
for all that, the interpretation is contained in passages
or sections of comparatively independent nature.
The first hymn, for instance, (after a general introduc-
tion) commences wdth the prayer of Jesus, followed by
an exhortation on the first duty of man to render thanks
for his daily bread, and the second duty to read the tra-
veller’s prayer.
Then in a few words the name of Kedron, which means
darkness, is explained: Man must wander here below
1) The best and fullest translation into English is in Venn Pil-
cher’s “Icelandic Meditations on the Passion”, Longmans’ Green
and Co., New York 1923, where a seletion from 31 of the Passion
Hymns is given.
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