Rebing wrote: > > thank you for pointing out that EJ himself believes that he got > "Stahlgewitter" from > the saga of Egil. (1) This might be another step towards the solution of our > problem. So > far, two possibilities seem to be ruled out definitely. First, > "Stahlgewitter" was not taken > from the Edda (because Egilsson's authoritative LEXICON does not list any > such kenning in > the EDDA). Second, though EJ might have found it in Egilssaga, he could not > have found it in > Niedner's translation of this text in the Thule series.
Guenther, You really did some research on this. Thanks very much. It seems that EJs memory might have lapsed toward the end somewhat as the Edda claim is from Siebzig Verweht V. > Niedner translates "thrumo stala" in Lausvisa 18 of Egil with "attack" > (angreifen). This is > not a faulty translation. On the contrary, Niedner is an ingenious > translator. He manages to > render the complex form of the scaldic verses in German. This is quite a feat > because of the > complex rules the scalds followed when writing their poems. Rule One says: > you must have two > words alliterate in one line (Stabreim), and another word at the beginning of > the next line > must show the same alliteration. (This rule is less strict than it sounds > because all vowels > are regarded as alliterations per se.) Rule Two: in each line there must be > an interior > rhyme (Binnenreim). Here are the Icelandic and German versions of that stanza > in question > with the above formal requirements marked: the alliterations in upper case > letters, the > interior rhymes underlined (if the underlinings do not show on your screen > please open the > attached Word document) This is the problem with foreign translations, that different ranslators use differen words for the original Old Icelandic. > > Valkostom hlothk Vestan > Vang fyr merkestanger > Ott vas El thats sottak > Athgils blaom nathre; > hathe Ungr vith Ungla > Aleifr thrumo stala; > Helt, ne Hrafnar sulto, > Hringr a vapna thinge. > > (A rough translation into English: > In the west I covered the fields with heaps of corpses, the fight was > furious, I killed > Adgils with the blue snake (= name of Egil's sword). Young Aleif raised a > thunder(storm) of > steel against the Angles. The ravens did not stay hungry, and there was work > for Hring in > the battle.) Have still no answer from my Icelandic contact but will keep you advised as soon as somthing comes along. > The scalds, having thus fettered themselves with those and other rules > (though, as the above > example shows, the rules were not always strictly adhered to) did not write > sentences > following the patterns of ordinary spoken language or those of the > matter-of-fact narrative > of the actual saga story. What they produced were clusters of words whose > meaning had to be > deciphered and could not be taken in at one glance. Because of this > difficulty, the modern > editors of the Icelandic texts usually add prose versions of the scaldic > stanzas in their > footnotes. > > The artistry of this poetry lay in the choice of kennings and in the > dexterity with which > the formal rules were obeyed. So a translator may quite legitimately decide > to focus on > rendering faithfully the formal traits. In order to achieve this he has to > make concessions > as regards other aspects of the text the old translator's dilemma: > traduttore traditore. > Niedner did quite well in rendering the alliterations and interior rhymes in > German: > > Machtvollen Muts liess fallen > Mann ich vorm banner. > Ehernes spiel! stets weher > Adgil Biss Blau-natter. > drängten Eng die Angeln > Aleif Anzugreifen! > Heiss ward's raben kreisten -- > Hring beim waffenthinge. > > However, in order to achieve the feat of having analogous alliterations and > interior rhymes > in his German text, he had to abandon the ideal of translating all nouns by > nouns, verbs by > verbs, etc.. He resorted to translating "stala thruma", a kenning composed of > two nouns, and > meaning " battle" or "attack ", by the one verb "attack". So there is no > "Stahlgewitter" in > Niedner's translation. Honi soit qui mal y pense. So its time to search the other editions. > All this means simply that we have to look for some other translation of > Egilssaga in which > EJ found in fact "Stahlgewitter" in the German rendering of the stanza quoted > above. There > exist, as far as I could find out with the help of my friend Heiko Uecker of > the > Germanistisches Seminar Bonn (who also taught me the rules of scaldic > poetry), the following > translations before Niedner: > > 1) Friedrich de la Motte-Fouqué (1813) > 2) Karl Lachmann (1816) > 3) Ferdinand Khull (1888) > 4) Arthur Bonus (1907) > > Bonus's ISLÄNDERBUCH was quite popular in his time. There are several > reprints, an edition > for young people and even a special edition printed in Switzerland for the > benefit of German > prisoners of war as vol. 15 of the "Bücherei für deutsche Kriegsgefangene". > Does this > indicate that in WWI the Icelandic sagas were so popular at the front that it > seemed > appropriate to make sure that even those German soldiers who had the bad luck > to be taken > prisoners of war could read them? And that Leutnant Jünger, known as a > fighter and a > bookworm, might have carried his Bonus in his field pack? > > So the posting of my next instalment of this saga of the hunt for a word will > depend on how > fast interlibrary loan is in Nordrhein-Westfalen.... > > (1) Im Wagen erfuhr ich von Erdmuthe einige Islandwörter; die Sprache ist > bildhaft wie bei > den Skalden -- bei einem, ich glaube: Egil, fand ich "Stahlgewitter" bald > nach dem ersten > Weltkrieg. (SIEBZIG VERWEHT I, p. 511, 3.8.68) Thanks again very much. It seems Bonus might be a good chance. You are indeed closing in. And I don't think it is hairsplitting. If you don't mind I have the intention to write an article on the matter. Feel inspired to continue my presentation of Icelandic quotes and themes in EJs works. Keep well Have you had any snow down there. First extensive snowfall here in southern Sweden this evening. Am sure a couple of inches. Bertil
