Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/411

 Reviews. 361

which there is a translation only, without text), with its interesting survivals of custom and superstition.

It is a pity that the translations, excellent as a rule, should be marred by occasional eccentricities, such as the coined words wrongeous (translating rangkiir), aliened, etc. ; and it is unlikely that the word heredmoot will convey any more meaning to the English reader than the herd^s\ing which it translates. The versions are also disfigured by frequent alternative translations {e.g. "rede or counsel"), and bracketed translations of proper names, which, if necessary, might better have been placed in foot-notes or index. It is possible that these were merely notes for the editors' own use, and would have been removed by those "final touches" the lack of which is regretted in the prefatory note.

The treatment of proper names is not happy. Sometimes they are translated, sometimes transliterated, sometimes left in their Icelandic form. It is a pity that the last course was not adopted throughout : the translation of proper names is un- necessary to the Icelandic student; the forms are often unwieldy; and to readers who do not know the original they are misleading, while it is not likely that, for instance, " Se-unn or Seawen " will be more comprehensible to them than Sceu^. Nor are the forms adopted consistent : thus the female name lori'cnn is variously represented by Eorwynd, Eorwend, Eorwen, lorund; and Ufeigr is sometimes translated Unfey, while throughout the version of Ljbsvetninga it is written Ufey. Of the two most famous Norse kings, Olaf the Saint keeps his name in its Norse form, while his equally well-known predecessor appears as Anlaf Tryggwason. It is surely unnecessary too to translate the name of the god Thor.

In some cases a serious liberty is taken with the names. The late editors held a brief for the hypothetical Irish influence on Iceland ; and in accordance with this, they frequently repre- sent Norse names in translation by supposed Irish equivalents. Thus Thormod, Gjaflaug, Cetill are translated Diarmaid, Geibh- leach or Gibleach, and Cathal, though all are common Scandinavian names. In Landndma, III. 5, 12, Utia, which is the genitive of Uni, is translated Una \UnadIi\ ; and in I. 9, 6, Svartkell is