Nine years later, in 1912, Eggen returned to the task he had left unfinished with the fairy scenes in Syn og Segn and gave a complete translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  In a little prefatory note he acknowledges his indebtedness to Arne Garborg, who critically examined the manuscript and gave valuable suggestions and advice.  The introduction itself is a restatement in two pages of the Shakespeare-Essex-Leicester-Elizabeth story.  Shakespeare recalls the festivities as he saw them in youth when he writes in Act II, Sc. 2: 

      thou rememberest
  Since once I sat upon a promontory,
  And heard a mermaid upon a dolphin’s back, etc.

And it is Elizabeth he has in mind when, in the same scene, we read: 

  That very time I saw, but thou could’st not,
  Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
  Cupid all armed, etc.

All of this is given by way of background, and it is of little importance to the general readers what modern Shakespeare scholars may say of it.

Eggen has not been content merely to reprint in the complete translation his earlier work from Syn og Segn, but he has made a thoroughgoing revision.[36] It cannot be said to be altogether happy.  Frequently, of course, a line or phrase is improved or an awkward turn straightened out, but, as a whole, the first version surpasses the second not in poetic beauty merely, but in accuracy.  Compare, for example, the two renderings of the opening lines: 

  SYN OG SEGN—­1903

  Nissen: 
  Kor no ande! seg, kvar skal du av?

      REVISION OF 1912

      Tuften: 
      Hallo!  Kvar skal du av, du vesle vette?

  Alven: 
    Yver dal, yver fjell,
    gjenom vatn, gjenom eld,
    yver gras, yver grind,
    gjenom klunger so stinn,
  yver alt eg smett og kliv
  snoggare enn maanen sviv;
  eg i gras dei ringar doggar,
  der vaar mori dans seg voggar.

      Alven: 
      Yver dal, yver fjell,
        gjenom vatn, gjenom eld,
      yver gras, yver grind,
        gjenom klunger so stinn,
      alle stad’r eg smett og kliv
      snoggare enn maanen sviv;
        eg dogge maa
        dei grone straa
      som vaar dronning dansar paa.

Hennar vakt mun symrur vera, gyllne klaede mun dei bera; sjaa dei stjernur alvar gav deim!  Derfraa kjem all angen av deim.  Aa sanke dogg—­til de eg kom; ei perle fester eg til kvar ein blom.  Far vel, du ande-styving!  Eg maa vekk; vaar dronning er her ho paa fljugand’ flekk.

        Kvart nykelband
        er adelsmann,
      med ordenar dei glime kann;
        kvar blank rubin,
        paa bringa skin,
      utsender ange fin. 
        Doggdropar blanke
        skal eg sanke,
        mange, mange,
        dei skal hange
        kvar av hennar
        adels-mennar
      glimande i oyra.