Hello one and all!

Thank you all, and especially Pelle, for your advice. Once you see the
grammar analysed it's easy to fit the pieces together, isn't it?

I'm a mature student at University College London [1st year] doing a degree
in Icelandic Studies, part-time, (because I have to earn a living as well to
help support the family!) So I find myself learning Old Norse and loving
it - much to my surprise. At the moment it feels a bit like sitting in
front of a massive jigsaw puzzle with all the relevant pieces scattered in
front of me and I'm slowly working out how to put them all together!
Learning modern Icelandic at the same time helps as well.

Next year I start to tackle Norwegian which I hope will be a little easier!

Thanks again,
Sarah.

----- Original Message -----
From: "hveenegaard" <hveenegaard@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 7:01 AM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: A newcomer in your midst!!


Before this simple sentence gets mangled any further,
I am unable to keep silent:

Hún = she
er = is
mær = a maiden (i.e. virgin)
ok = and
henni = her (feminine, dative, singular)
þjóna = serve (present, 3. person, plural)
þær = they, those (feminine, nominative, plural)
er = who
meyjar = maidens (virgins)
andask = die

The verb ÞJÓNA takes a dative of the person served, i.e.
A serves B = A (nom) þjónar B (dat). Thus: hann þjónar
henni = he serves her; hún þjónar honum = she serves him;
ek þjóna þér = I serve you; þú þjónar mér = you serve me.

"She is a virgin and those who die virgins serve her."

No more bad grammar, please. And in case anyone hadn't
noticed, this sentence comes from Gylfaginning, and
refers to the goddess Gefjun.

Regards,
Pelle

--- In norse_course@..., Dan Bray <dbray@...> wrote:
> Heil Sarah!
>
> My translation (probably imperfect) would be: "She is a maiden, and
her
> servants (noun, not verb) (they) are dead (or dying) maidens."
However,
> I'm not sure of the significance of using the reflexive form
(andask)
> rather than a participle after "er", except that it's necessary to
> change the meaning from "breathing, alive" to "breathing one's last,
> dead". Some context would help. Anyone?
>
> Sarah Bowen wrote:
>
> > Hello! My name's Sarah and I'm a new recruit to the world of Old
> > Norse! I've been working through a couple of very useful
tutorials I
> > found on the internet. I'm a bit puzzled by one small phrase and
> > wondered if one of you could help... [please excuse the fact that
I
> > don't have the Icelandic alphabet on my computer - is it
downloadable
> > from somewhere??] Hon er maer, ok henni thjona thaer er meyjar
> > andask.She is a maiden and they serve her ...................??
Thanks
> > for your help.Bye for now, Sarah.
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
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>
> >
> > Sumir hafa kvæði...
> > ...aðrir spakmæli.
> >
> > - Keth
> >
> > Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > norse_course-unsubscribe@...
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service.
>
> --
> Daniel Bray
> dbray@...
> School of Studies in Religion A20
> University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia
>
> "Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an
> unidentified source." Ron Nesen



Sumir hafa kvæði...
...aðrir spakmæli.

- Keth

Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/

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