--- "llama_nom" wrote:

> But I was wondering, does the idiom 'taka föng sín'
> actually exist in the sense of "take/seize one's opportunity"?

I think I can safely say absolutely not. The word is
immediately comprehensible as "stuff", "things", "luggage",
both in the syntactic and semantic contexts. On top of
that, it is such a common expression that there is really
no room for doubt.

I do realize that the word is sometimes used metaphorically
("means" rather than "opportunity"), but these expressions
are fixed, and also immediately recognizable as such, e.g.

eftir föngum "according to one's means"
hafa föng á einhverju "have the means to do something"
eftir því sem föng eru á "as far as possible"

I'm not sure if any of these three actually occur in medieval
text, but this one does:

hafa föng til einhvers "have the means to do something"

As you can see, here we always have a clear metaphorical
relationship, i.e. "föng" = "vistir" (provisions), i.e. the
"means" to do something. "Opportunity" is too far of a semantic
stretch, I think.

But I am quite sure that "taka föng sín" can only mean one
thing, and that is what it has meant to the Icelanders as
far back as history reaches. But if you were to insist that
is must mean "pick up one's means", there is not much I can
do about it, of course ;-)

> I found a couple more examples, both I think refering
> to "luggage."
>
> taka föng þeirra og hafa til skips (Króka-Refs saga).
> taka föng sín á öxl sér (Ezekiel 12:12).

And so they do. I'll check the concordance later to day for
all the available examples.

Best,
Eysteinn