Hi there llama_nom,

For interest sake.

"Eigi engi" is a medieval [at least] rhetorical tool. See LITOTES [Sn.
II, p.190]

"Not Nobody" replaces "Everybody" even replaces "Somebody".

Hope I'm not disturbing you?

Thanks Blanc Uoden "Not the only one".

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@...> wrote:
>
>
> > hann brá við öxinni
>
> He parried with the axe; he warded off the blow with his axe, cf.
> Zoega: bregða e-u við "to ward off with". If I've understood
this
> right, the weapon used to parry is dative just to express its role as
> the instrument, rather than being governed by the preposition
'við'.
> Instead, 'við' is adverbial, part of the phrasal verb 'bregða
við'.
> Does that make sense? 'hann brá við' "he reacted/responded, (or
in
> this instance, specifically) parried" -- the enemy's blow being the
> implied complement of 'við' "against, towards, in response to" --
What
> did he parry with? 'öxinni' "with the axe". I hope I haven't
> ridiculously overcomplicated that...
>
> > og kom í fetann og beit í ofan um tvo fingur.
>
> "and [it, G.'s sax] landed in the axe-blade and cut down into [it] the
> width of two fingers." Magnús Magnússon and Hermann Pálsson:
"The
> sword struck the axe-blade with such force that it bit an inch deep."
>
> > Eigi ert þú engi í leikinum.
>
> MM & HP paraphrase the idiom: "There's nothing half-hearted about your
> way of doing things." (Lit. "You are not no one in the game.")
>
> > "Far þú til Hrúts föðurbróður míns," segir hún,
"og sjái (subj) hann
> fyrir þér."
>
> MM & HP: "... He will look after you." I think the subjunctive is
> used here not so much to cast a doubt on the likelihood of his looking
> after Th., but in the optative or imperative sense: "may he look after
> you".
>