--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@...> wrote:

>
>
> From Njal 36 beginning:
>
> > "og fer þér illa þar sem eg hefi mælt
> > `and (it) goes to you badly (reflects badly on you) where I have

spoken

>
> From Njal 36 part 2:
>
> > Og væntir mig að þér fari vel en þó munt þú verða mjög að

þreyttur."

> > spoken-with-each-other well (been on good terms?) . And (it)
> gives-hope to me that (it will) go well for you but still you will

be

> much tested (sorely tried)
>
> In each of these examples, isn't the sense of the expression 'e-m

ferr

> vel/illa' rather "one acts/behaves well/badly"? -- the person who

acts

> being in the dative. This is how Magnuús Magnússon and Hermann
> Pálsson take it, and the idiom is defined thus by Zoega

under 'fara' (10).

My sense for the language (which may be wrong, of course) tells
me that the meaning of these two is not quite the same. In the
first instance, I think "fer þér illa" means "it suits you badly,
it is not well fitting for you, it behoves you ill". Hallgerðr
is saying that it is not fitting for Kolr to drag his legs in
this matter, after all the times she has spoken up for him - it
looks bad for him and makes him less of a man (in Alan's words,
it "reflects badly on him"). Today, we say "fötin fara þér illa"
meaning "the clothes do not suit you well, do not look good on you,
fit you badly". It is a similar sense.

In the second instance "væntir mig að þér fari vel" is more
straightforward (from the viewpoint of English), i.e. "I expect
that this will go well for you" (as Alan phrases it) - the sense
of "suitability" or "fittingness" doesn't enter the picture in
this instance.

Hope I haven't caused even more confusion.

Regards,
Eysteinn