When this Thing is past and gone.”
The great Icelandic poets have translated into the Icelandic many of Shakespeare’s plays, the Iliad, Odyssey, Paradise Lost and scores of the minor pieces of English and American poetry as well as the masterpieces of German, French and Scandinavian literature. When we learn that the rules for Icelandic poetry are strict, that not only rhyme and rhythm but a complicated alliteration must be incorporated in the verses, we can understand what a task these translators have had. There are many variations of the alliteration. In the following is noted not only simple alliteration but also that the second hemistich begins with the penultimate syllable of the first. To illustrate note the following:—
Hrein-tiörnum gledr horna
Horn nair litt at thorna
Miöðr hegnir bol bargna
Bragningr scipa Fagnir.
Folk hömlo gefr framla
Framlyndr vidum gamla
Sas helldr fyrir skot Skiölldum.
Skiölldungr hunangs ölldur.