Sæll Simon!
I hope the move went well. Apologies for the
delay in getting back to you - my only excuse is this weather. I only
function in temperatures up to 20 C, by 25 C I´m positively wilting and by 30+ C
I have melted! What a wimp!
Anyway, to your translation. You seemed to
get it all virtually. Just one or two tricky bits and I'm not sure whether
my explanations will be totally satisfactory. Perhaps someone else can
shed more light for us?
"Máttu sjá at engi er allfúss til
annarra".
This is the explanation I gave to Grace. Does
this make enough sense?
"allfúss" is tricky because it can mean "very eager" but I think it is the
use of "til annarra" which shifts the meaning slightly to "more
eager". "annarra" is the masculine,
genitive, plural form of
annarr. "til" invariably sends adjectives and nouns into the genitive
form. So, put together we get...
Can't you see that no-one is
more eager than another? (or than any other).
Konungr maelti, "Ekki veit ek hvaðan þessi hreysti
er at þér komin,"
Here you translated "hvaðan" with 'when'. I
think it should be 'where from'
- Ha! This is not so straightforward is it?!!
Hvat má vita, nema fleira hafi skipzk um hagi þína
en sjá þykkir?
Again, this is what I said to Grace. (Not
sure if my own explanations entirely satisfy me, but...)
You came a bit unstuck here, so I'll analyse the grammar for you word
for
word and maybe that will help...
hvat - interrogative pronoun,
accusative singular
neuter
form from
"hverr"
má - verb, 3rd person singular form from
"mega"
vita - verb, infinitive form
i.e. "who may
know,"
nema - conjunction
fleiri - comparative adjective,
"more"
hafi - verb, 3rd per sing subjunctive from from
"hafa"
skipsk - verb, past participle from
"skipask".
um - preposition, governing the
dative this time
hagi - noun, masculine singular dative
form from "hagr"
þína - possessive pronoun. Now I think I
must have
stopped taking notes here because I don´t
have
an
explanation for why "þína" is in this form
-
which could
either be fem acc sing or masc
acc
plur!
Whereas we would expect a form to
agree
with
"hagi"! CAN ANYONE SHED
ANY
LIGHT ON
THIS PLEASE?!
en -
conjuntion
sjá - demonstrative pronoun, nominative masc
sing form
(same as
þessi)
þykkir - verb, 3rd pers sing present from "þykkja"
i.e. ...
except that more has changed about your nature than this seems (or, than seems
evident.)
En faestir menn þykkjask þik kenna, at þú sér inn
sami maðr
You've very nearly got this right. "kenna" can also
mean
"recognise". "sér" here is the subjuntive form of "vera" (easily
confused with the indicative of sjá!) "inn" is the free standing definite
article. I think the sense that the subjunctive "sér" conveys can best be
expressed in
English by putting the uncertainty in the main clause verb...
e.g. but few men would recognise you as the same man
literally, it
reads
but few men think to recognise you that you be the same man.
- another teeny one but it does affect the overall
meaning...
en þat þykki mér þó þitt verk
frægiligast
Here þitt verk is in the singular so I think we
should say something along the lines of
but nevertheless it seems to be your most
honourable
feat...
ok óvaenligr þótti til mikillar giptu
"óvænligr" is an adjective modifying "Hottr" in the previous clause and it
means unpromising. So unpromising
Hott is the subject of the verb
þótti, which can mean to seem or to be thought. "mikillar giptu" (much
good luck) is in the genitive form because of the preposition "til". So
put altogether, you get (literally)
and unpromising Hott was not thought much
good luck
or
and he did not seem to promise much good luck.
Hope this helps! If you, or anyone else still
has any niggling doubts that haven't been answered within the group, post them
up and I will ask my lecturer via email and let you all know!
Bye for now,
Sarah.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 6:04
PM
Subject: [norse_course] TRANSLATION
ENCLOSED
Hi Sarah,
Many thanks for the help with the previous
one, and sorry this one's late - we've been very busy with the move (to
Godalming) recently.
There were a couple of things I wasn't too sure of
here, by the way.
Hrafnkel sounds great,
incidentally.
Cheers,
Simon
A
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