More than that: the Old Northern tongue (called Icelandic because it is only in Iceland that it survives in its purity as a living language, and because it was Icelanders that built up its classic literature of prose and verse) more than any other language resembles our own. The two languages are akin in word, syntax, and idiom. Hundreds of words* are substantially the same in English and Icelandic, and among them great numbers of the simple basic words belonging to things that are close to the roots of all human thought and action. Thus there is likeness of spirit and likeness of language; and a good translation, a recognizable shadow that being looked on recalls the features and movements of its original without much degradation or distortion, is certainly no impossible thing. Yet there are few good translations of sagas: perhaps only two good translators, and all the rest mostly bad. And the reason is, what? First, no doubt, there are the stubborn difficulties that stand in the way of all translation.
