The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1974, Page 49

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
47
landic, sent by Grimur Thomsen to the
Edinburgh publisher, David Douglas.
The manuscript was purchased by the
Library at an auction in Edinburgh
on 2nd of December 1949. The papers
show beyond doubt that Grimur
Thomsen was the author of the essay
in The North British Review, which
was at the time edited by David Doug-
las. It is in fact a translation of an
eessay previously published by Grimur
in two parts in Danish journals (1846
and 1857).
In the present volume we have re-
produced Grimur Thomsen’s essay;
however, we decided to omit some of
his translations, and we have silently
modified the form of several proper
names (e.g. changing Hla to Hel, Val-
halla to Volholl, ect.) In the Introduc-
tion to our edition of the essay we
have tried to offer a coherent story
of the Thomsen/Douglas association
basing it largely on MS 3853 and the
Douglas papers now in the possession
of W. S. Douglas.
Finally, in order to set Thomsen’s
contribution to the Review in a mean-
ingful context, one of the present writ-
ers (EJC) has offered a broad survey
of Icelandic studies in Scotland down
the 1870s.
It appears to me that the editors
have achieved splendidly what they
set out to do with respect to the pub-
lication of Grimur Thomsen’s notable
essay. Because of his wide knowledge
and penetrating understanding of the
subject, his interpretation has much
to offer any present-day reader inter-
ested in Old Northern Poetry. The in-
clusion of his translation of the Eddie
poem “GuSrunarkviSa I” (The First
Song of Gudrun) in the editors’ Intro-
duction to the essay is also a happy
choice, and amply supports their obser-
vation: “It seems a great pity that
David Douglas did not go ahead with
his projected volume of Edda trans-
lations, considering that Thomsen’s
version of the poems would have
proved a significant contribution to
Icelandic literary studies in Great
Britain, even though he often failed
to attain the standard he was evidently
aiming for.”
In short, this scholarly edition of
Thomsen’s essay casts a new light on
the extensive literary activity of that
leading Icelandic poet.
Cowan’s survey of Icelandic studies
in Scotland during the 18th and the
19th centuries is also both highly in-
formative and most welcome, as, ac-
cording to my knowledge, it is the
first special survey of its kind, although
much has previously been written on
the general subject of Scandinavian
influence on English literature.
Among the prominent Scots discus-
sed in the survey are Sir George S.
Mackenzie, author of Travels in Ice-
land (1811), and Ebenezer Henderson,
author of Iceland; or the journal of a
residence in that island, during the
years 1814 and 1815. (Edinburgh, 1818)
Both of these works are classics in their
field, and did much to arouse interest
in Iceland. The third Scot discussed
in the survey to whom we Icelanders
owe a particularly great debt of grati-
tude is our Sir George Webbe Dasent