utsender ange fin.
have to the ears of most Norwegians the atmosphere of the back stairs. Better the unadorned version of 1903.
In the passage following, Robin's reply, the revised version is probably better than the first, though there seems to be little to choose between them. But in the fairy's next speech the translator has gone quite beyond his legitimate province, and has improved Shakespeare by a picture from Norwegian folklore. Following the lines of the original:
Misleade nightwanderers, laughing at their harm,
Eggen has added this homelike conception in his translation:
som òg kann draga fôr til hest og naut,
naar berre du kvar torsdag fær din graut.
Shakespeare in Elysium must have regretted that he was not born in the mountains of Norway!
And when Robin, in the speech that follows, tells of his antics, one wonders just a little what has been gained by the revision. The same query is constantly suggested to anyone who compares the two texts.
Nor do I think that the lyrics have gained by the revision. Just a single comparison—the lullaby in the two versions. We have given it above as published in Syn og Segn. The following is its revised form:
Fyrste alven: