What ho!, Sarah, Laurel, Daniel, Thomas and
other silent students. This is a follow-up to my translation of Bothvar, lines
8-20
line 10: 'bokki saell'
How can this expression translate comfortably into one's own
culture? As a 59 year-old Englishman, my version would be different from a
20 year-old American or a 40 year- old Australian. Even for someone as advanced
in years and dignity as myself, Gordon's offer of 'good sir' is too formal - it
reflects the greeting that an Englishman of the middle-class,
a professional person educated round the beginning of the 20th
century, would expect to be used. To my mind it's like putting Hott
into a black pin-stripe suit with a wing-collar shirt and a bowler hat
and then dumping him into a pile of rubbish. And that doesn't seem to be
the stuff that sagas are made of.
Zoega translates 'bokki' as 'buck', 'fellow', and
'saell' as 'well-off', 'fortunate' etc. and no combination of these terms rings
true in English. A frightened, deferential low-life character in England might
address a superior as 'boss', 'guv'nor', or even 'sir'. That's the nearest I can
get. I would be interested to see what native English-speaking people of
other countries and different generations come up with.
line 13: 'skjaldborg' - 'wall of shields'. I've
already suggested to Sarah that this may be interpreted as 'stronghold',
'refuge', or less likely 'hidey hole'. Perhaps 'shelter' would be
appropriate.
lines 12/13: 'Vesall ertu thinnar
skjaldborgar!' Zoega gives 'vesall' as 'very wretched' and 'vile'. I
prefer 'vile' because it can express physical state and character simultaneously
and it sounds more forceful and contemptuous than 'wretched', a term which
can have a connotation of pity. The last two words may be genitive of
specification - 'amount or identity', according to Gordon. Could this be
expanded to include an aspect of character as it does in the Greek
accusative of specification where we have 'You are blind in your ......mind.' On
this model the corresponding utterance of Bothvar is 'You are vile in your shelter.' Does this sound authentic? Or am I
drinking with the fairies?
There now, that's more than enough from me. I look
forward to other, and hopefully, better translations than mine.
Cheers
Jed.
p.s. to Sarah. Thank
you for your corrections of my first translation; they were much
appreciated.