Í stuttu máli, eg komst að raun um að mikill hluti af eydum manna kemur af því að þeir meta ranglega gildi hluta, og gefa of mikið fyrir hljóðpípur sínar.
The word Hljothpipan, literally translated, is a pipe, or musical instrument, made out of a reed. These extracts from Icelandic literature are undoubtedly very interesting! If not so readily perused as our English, they at least show the literary taste of the Icelanders, and something of the variety and style of their composition. Here is an extract from a newspaper published in Reykjavik a few days after I left; a copy of which I received by mail after arriving in New York.
From the Þjoðolfur[[38]] of Aug. 20th, 1852.
Eptirfylgjandi GREIN bað ferðamaðurinn herra PLINY MILES rektor herra BJARNA JÓNSSON að láta prenta í Þjóðólfi, og senda honum svo til Vesturheims.
Herra Pliny Miles, Vesturheimsmaður og meðlimur Sagnafjelagsins í Nýju Jórvík, hefur um bríð dvalið á Íslandi og farið víða um hjeröð landsins. Hann hefur skoðað Geisir, litla Geisir, brennisteinnámurnar í Krisuvik, og hann kom upp á tindinn á Heklu. Herra Miles hefur skoðað og aðgætt nokkrar bækur landsins, og hefur hann haft heim með sjer til Vesturheims nokkrar íslenzkar bækur. Stiptsbókasafnið hefur sent böggul af bókum þjóðbókasafni Vesturheims, er Smithson er höfundur að, til endurgjalds fyrir dýrar bækur, er stiptsbókasafnið hafði nýlega fengið frá bókasafni Smithsons. Herra Miles siglir á póstskipinu til meginlands Norðurálfunnar, og tjáir hann sig mikillega ánægðan með allt, sem hann hefur sjeð út á Íslandi.
A translation of this is scarcely required, as its purport can be readily seen. It is a short article written by Mr. Bjarni Johnson, for the THIOTHOLFUR, and giving an account of the author’s visit to Iceland.
In the Icelandic, whole sentences from other languages are thrown into one word. The word Vesturheimsmathur, fully translated, is a man who has his home on the western continent. It goes on to speak of this native of the West, as a member of the New York Historical Society—“Sagnafjelagsins”—and that, during a somewhat rainy period, he visited Iceland, traveled through the interior of the country, went to the Geyser, the little Geyser, the Sulphur Mountains—“brennisteinnámurnar”—of Krisuvik, and climbed to the top of Hekla. It speaks of the visit as a pleasant one, and that on the return of the traveler to America—“Vesturheims”—he took some books from the Iceland public library—“stiptsbókasafnith”—as a present to the American Smithsonian library, in return for a similar present formerly received from Smithson’s. Then he journeyed on the mail packet—“póstskipinu”—to the continent of Europe, after a long tour and an agreeable stay in Iceland.
This shall close our extracts. Lest some may think that the writer of this volume is an enthusiast, and overrates the value of Icelandic literature, the following statement is quoted from the preface to the English translation of Rask’s Icelandic Grammar, by Hon. George P. Marsh, and shows the high estimate placed on the language and literature of the Northmen, by this eminent linguist.
The translator cannot here enter upon so copious a subject as the character and value of the literature of Iceland; and it must suffice to remark, that in the opinion of those most competent to judge, it has never been surpassed, if equaled, in all that gives value to that portion of history which consists of spirited delineations of character, and faithful and lively pictures of events among nations in a rude state of society.
That the study of the Old-Northern tongue may have an important bearing on English grammar and etymology, will be obvious when it is known that the Icelandic is most closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon, of which so few monuments are extant; and a slight examination of its structure, and remarkable syntactical character, will satisfy the reader, that it may well deserve the attention of the philologist.