Page:The Story of Egil Skallagrimsson.djvu/14

generally shorter. Into the critical merits of these texts I am not competent to enter; the variations are of no importance to the story or to an English reader.

The prose of the Saga presents few difficulties to a translator. Icelandic prose, as regards order of words, is simple, and runs naturally enough into English. The sentences are mostly short and plain. In Egilssaga the style for Icelandic is pronounced by good authorities to be of the best; the translator can only hope that in its English dress it may not have lost all its attractiveness.

Of the verse in this Saga, and of the principles followed in translating it, something must be said; for peculiar difficulties beset the translator of Icelandic verses. Icelandic poetry differs entirely from Icelandic prose. Whereas the prose is simple, the poetry is highly artificial. Especially so are the detached staves or stanzas sprinkled throughout the Sagas. Of such the Egla has a great number, mostly Egil's own verses; and, as he is accounted one of the best of Iceland's ancient skalds, they are an interesting part of the Saga and could not be omitted. But in rendering them into English one meets with perplexing difficulties.

These staves consist nearly always of eight lines each, made up of two sets of four lines, the sense being usually complete in each quatrain. As regards metre, the lines are short, about of a length, not exactly so in syllables, but alike in rhythm and number of accented syllables. No doubt more exact rules about their metre are discoverable and known to Icelanders, but for the English reader the above description will suffice. The lines do not rhyme, or very seldom do so, and (I believe) rhyme in these detached stanzas is looked on as a mark of a later date than the tenth century. The place of rhyme is taken by alliteration of initials. That is to say, in the second line must be repeated the same initial consonant that has been used twice (or at least once) in the first line, or else a vowel must be so repeated. Anyone familiar with old English or Saxon verses (such as occur in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, e.g., the battle of Brunanburh) will understand the kind of alliteration meant.

Now, a translator has to choose between keeping this