The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1995, Síða 22

132
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SPRING/SUMMER 1995
Halldor Hermannsson mentioned the pos-
sibility of our working together in some
future research project. It never came to
that, although after World War II, in dis-
cussing what I should do with him, he sug-
gested that I might translate Thorgils saga
Haflida into English. I did this, but in the
interim, another translator had worked on
Thorgils saga together with other sagas with
the result that my translation, which was
based on Halldor Hermannsson’s text in
the volume 31 of Islandica that was pub-
lished in 1945, has not seen the light of day.
Nevertheless, I learned a good deal in do-
ing the translation.
Halldor Hermannsson and I corre-
sponded irregularly during the time I
served in the United States Army, 1942-
1945, so each of us was fairly familiar with
the other’s interests and work. The first year
after the war, 1945-46, I taught at Cornell
University and had the opportunity to be
with Halldor Hermannsson frequently and
benefit from his counsel and wisdom. The
next three years I was at Harvard Univer-
sity and thus not so far away that I was un-
able to visit Ithaca and use the Collection
frequently. By this time, my interest in Dan-
ish literature had increased considerably,
and after 1947, I was engaged principally
in writing a history of Danish literature.
Halldor Hermannsson evinced no disap-
pointment that I dealt primarily with Dan-
ish literature rather than Icelandic and was
in fact complimentary about A History of
Danish Literature when it finally appeared.
I had wanted to go to Iceland as soon as
possible after the war, but Halldor
Hermannsson advised me against it in 1947
and 1948 because of the inflation in Ice-
land. By 1949, however, the inflation had
not ceased and I had to seek some way of
getting to Iceland where I would not be
affected by the inflation. This was success-
ful and I ended up working as a farm hand
in the Borgarfjorbur district at Hvltarbakki.
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An Intermediate Care Facility
495 Stradbrook Avenue
phone Herman O. Thorvaldson phone
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