The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1955, Qupperneq 45

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
43
BOOK REVIEW
“NJALS SAGA”,
Icelandic Masterpiece Ready
The great Icelandic classic “Njal’s
Saga, published by the American
Scandinavian Foundation in
cooperation with New York University
Tress, will be mailed free to all Sustain-
ing, Sponsoring and Life Associates of
ASF at the end of this month. The old
Icelandic saga has been translated by
Prof. Carl F. Bayerschmidt, Chairman
of the Department of Germanic
Eanguages at Columbia University,
and Prof. Lee M. Hollander, Professor
of Germanic Languages at the Univer-
sity of Texas. Handsomely printed and
bound, the book will retail at $6.50
though Associates of the Foundation
are entitled to a 25% discount.
The first ASF publication for 1955,
ISjals Saga is one of the great master-
pieces of world literature. While the
anonymous thirteenth century author
based his tale on actual past adventures
experienced by his countrymen, he im-
provised freely in the creation of mar-
vellous scenes and events that roll to
a dramatic climax in the death by fire
of Njal, his loyal wife and his sons. In
contemporary literature the saga has
influenced such poet-dramatists as Ezra,
Pound and T. S. Eliot (Burnt Njal”).
A previous translation of the classic,
excellent for its time, is now almost
a century old. Victorian mannerisms
mar the writing, and modern study has
revealed the scholarship to be out-
dated. :
Benefiting from our new knowledge
of the distinction that must be made
between the prose of the saga and its
archaic verse and aided by the easy
idiom o four day. Professors Bayer-
schmidt and Hollander have produced
a translation that is both readable and
authentic. They have based their work
cn the much-admired edition in Ice-
landic by Finnur Jonsson, and the
exactness of their rendering makes the
book extremely useful for study of the
language.
Splendor of character portrayal,
richness of material and the dramatic
feeling of controlled understatement
characterize these narratives. The saga
style has been compared to a snow-
coverecl volcano—cold and impersonal
on the surface but glowing with pas-
sion underneath. And the translators
have succeeded in preserving both
characteristics of the style.
Njal’s Saga, which is approximately
400 pages long, contains maps, notes
and a selected bibliography.
Reprinted from SCAN, the monthly bulletin
of The American Scandinavian Foundation by
permission of the publishers.
★
From Chapter 1 of Njal’s Saga
It happened one day that Ploskuld
invited his friends to a feast, and his
brother, Hrut, was there and occupied
the seat beside him. Hoskuld had a
daughter named Hallgerd who was
playing on the floor with some other
girls. She was beautiful and tall; her
hair shone like silk and was so long
that it came down to her waist.
Hoskuld called to her: “Come here, my
daughter!”
She came to him immediately and
he chucked her under the chin and
kissed her. After that she went away
again. Then Hoskuld remarked to
Hrut: “What do you think of this
girl? Don’t you think she’s beautiful?”
At first Hrut remained silent. When
Hoskuld repeated the question, Hrut