The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Qupperneq 15

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
11
A Roman Elegy On Rural Life
By Prof. Skuli Johnson, University of Manitoba.
In the awakening of modern Icelandic
literature the importance of the classics
has not as yet been adequately apprais-
ed. The significance however of such
an accomplished classicist as SVeinbjorn
Egilsson (1791-1852) has been generally
recognized. His interest in linguistics
and language follows two main lines:
the native antiquarian and the ancient
classical; these paths ultimately meet
in his translations of Old Icelandic into
Latin, in his versions of Homer, which
have become Icelandic classics, and in
his monumental lexicon of the Old
Icelandic poetic diction done into Latin.
These works are internationally known.
A sad neglect however has been the lot
of his Latin poetry; this is mainly due
to the general decline of classical learn-
ing in Iceland.
It is impossible to enlarge here on
Egilsson’s Latin poems. Being the by-
products of a busy academic life, they
are not voluminous. A few of them
were written in the short time of retire-
ment that he enjoyed. The majority, and
those the most important ones, belong
to the author’s youth, prior to his de-
parture to Denmark to attend the Uni-
versity of Copenhagen. The most pre-
tentious of these are elegiac epistles
and an Horatian ode addressed to two
of the three Icelandic clergymen who
by private tuition prepared him for
matriculation. From these' he may
have received some instruction in Latin
prosody; though the author approaches
them with apologetic modesty and pays
sincere tribute to their kind sympathy
and sound critical sense, their assistance
may well have been only rudimentary.
Egilsson’s achievements in Latin poetry
are largely his own and his poems are
in quality on a par with those of the
Augustans. His lyrics remind one of
Horace, and his elegies, of Ovid. In-
cidentally Egilsson translated some
pieces of both of these into Icelandic
verse. An hexameter piece of his is
quite in the spirit and manner of
Vergil’s Georgies, and his epigrams and
epitaphs are clearly in the classical
tradition.
On one of his Latin poems I wish
however to dwell; it is not only unique
in his exquisite collection of Latin verse
but also is perhaps without an equal in
the Latin elegies of Iceland. It is
entitled Carmen Sollenne and is assign-
ed by the editors of Egilsson’s poetical
works, published posthumously in 1856,
to the year 1811. If this tentative date
is correct, the piece is the second or
third earliest Latin poem by the author.
At all events it belongs to the period
prior to 1814, when he sailed to attend
the University of Copenhagen. In
another poem in 1811 Egilsson refers to
a Latin piece sent to one of his teachers
but there is nothing to show that the
Carmen Sollenne is meant, but in
elegiacs written to Olafur Stephensen
prior to 1814, Egilsson in exhorting his
friend and foster-brother to write Latin
verse (hexameters or elegiacs), speaks
of submitting his Latin verse to Steph-
ensen’s critical aid and declares that
Stephensen has with him a copy of the
Carmen Sollenne:
Quod tibi jam pridem carmen
sollenne praeivi,
Servasti. . . .
Evidently Egilsson looked on that poem
as a model which his friend might find
useful for guidance in writing elegiacs.
And well indeed he might, for it is most
instructive in matter and method.
Egilsson’s poem consists of forty-four
elegiac distichs; this verse-form is, for
practical purposes, well enough indicat-
ed by Schiller’s couplet, turned into
English by Coleridge;