Heil Alfta ok ér öll! (12th century)
Heil Álfta ok þér öll! (13th century)
Things are still a bit hectic on my side but my last
exams are on the 20th and after that I should have enough
time. If you lot want to take a Yule break I'm willing to
but I don't see any particular reason.
Anyway - I think I hadn't replied to Alfta's week 5.
> 1. Þessir broeðr gengu um kaupstaðinn jafnan ok vildu kaupa sér
> gullhring.
> broeðr: noun, masculine, plural, nominative
Correct.
> gengu: verb, 3rd person, plural, past tense,
> indicative, active voice
Correct.
> jafnan: adverb
Correct.
> kaupa: verb, infinitive, active voice
Correct.
> 2. þar kømr mest fjölmenni hingat á Norðurlönd
>
> kømr = verb, 3rd person, singular, present tense,
> indicative, passive voice
Hmm? Active voice.
> Norðurlönd = noun, neutral, plural, accusative
Correct.
> 3. Þorbjörn var auðigr maðr ok var þá gamall, er þetta var tíðenda.
> tíðenda = noun, neutral, plural, genitive?
Yes.
> 4. gifti þar Ólöfu dóttur Þorsteins rauðs
>
> I am really unsure on this but I am going to give it shot:
>
> Ólöfu = noun, feminine, singular, dative?
> dóttur = noun, feminine, singular, genitive
> Þorsteins = noun, masculine, singular, genitive
> rauðs = adjective, masculine, singular, genitive
The first two are in accusative.
> 5. Þar sat maðr fyrir ok fagnaði þeim vel ok spurði
> hvat þeir vildi kaupa.
> þeim = pronoun, 3rd person, plural, masculine, dative
Correct.
> vildi kaupa = verb, 3rd person, plural, past tense,
> subjunctive, passive
What is meant by 'passive voice' in Old Norse is not
a particular inflectional paradigm but constructions like:
Passive voice
"Hringrinn var keyptr."
The ring was bought.
as opposed to either:
Active voice
"Haraldr keypti hringinn."
Harald bought the ring.
or
Middle voice
"Hringrinn keyptisk."
(Meaningless.)
> Question: Why do we have vildu kaupa in sentence 1 but
> vildi kaupa in sentence 5?
>
> Vildu is indicative and Vildi is subjunctive. In sentence one the
> brothers want to buy a gold ring but in sentence five the desire to
> purchase is, to the man, vague.
Correct. You should be careful, though, to read too much
into the 'meaning' of indicative and subjunctive. A lot of
the time the sentence structure 'forces' you to use one
rather than the other.
> Translation
>
> A man is named Eyvindr - he lived in Norway. His brother was called
> Gunnarr. The brothers were both big and strong.
>
> Maðr heitir Eyvindr hann lifði í Nóregi.
Grammatically correct. The verb 'lifa' is not used,
however, for "inhabit" in Old Norse.
> Gunnarr var kölluð hans bróður.
Grammatically incorrect. You're trying for
the passive construction;
"Gunnarr var kallaðr bróðir hans."
you could also try the middle voice;
"Gunnarr kallaðisk bróðir hans."
but what I was fishing for was:
"Gunnarr hét bróðir hans."
> Brdirnir váru jafnan stórir ok sterkir.
Again, I do not recommend the use of MS-oe-ligature.
In any case "the brothers" is a bit butched up;
I think 'broeðrinir' is correct but I was fishing
for 'þeir broeðr'. The rest of the sentence is
grammatically correct - but 'jafnan' means "constantly"
or "always" and I was asking for 'both; bæði'.
You chose 'stórr' rather than 'mikill' for "big".
No problem - the words are near-synonyms. I think,
though, that 'mikill' is the normal word for describing
people in Old Norse - nowadays we use 'stór(r)'
for that.
- - -
Not bad at all.
Kveðja,
Haukur