--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Fred and Grace Hatton"
<hatton@...> wrote:

>
>Hún kallaði betri menn óbætta liggja margstaðar.

> She said better men an act that cannot be atoned for ?(with money)

lie in many places.

"She said that better men lay unatoned for in many places."

That's to say: there's a lot of better men than Svartr who haven't
been atoned for. Here 'óboetta' is the masculine accusative plural of
the adjective 'óboettr' "unatoned for", negative prefix'ó' + the past
participle of 'boeta' "to make better, improve; to make up for,
compensative, atone for". The feminine plural noun meaning "an act
that can't be atoned for" just has one 't'. 'liggja' is the
infinitive: she declared them to lie = she said that they lay.

> Gunnar kvað hana ráða mundu tiltekjum sínum "en eg skal ráða

hversu málin lúkast."

> Gunnar uttered to her advice be remembered his procedure?, " but I

shall advise how the suit comes to an end."

"G. said that she would (most likely) decide about / be in charge of /
be the boss in respect of her own actions, 'but I will decide how the
case/matter is concluded."

MM & HP: "G. said that she might decide her own actions, 'but I shall
decide how to deal with their consequences."

'ráða' and 'mundu' are infinitive verbs. 'ráða' is subordinated to
'mundu'; 'mundu' is subordinated to 'kvað' -- he said (kvað) that she
would (mundu) be in charge (ráða). The thing that she's boss of is
dative. 'mundu' is the past infinitive of the future auxiliary 'munu'
(rather than 'muna' "to remember"). These past infinitives are pretty
rare; according to Gordon, the only ones that occur normally in prose
are 'mundu' and 'skyldu', although a few others are found in poetry.

LN