> was that a kind of proverb?
Yes, 'fluga' "a fly" -
fishing metaphor: the fly is the "bait".
> En ef Hallgerður kemur
annarri flugu í munn þér þá verður það þinn
bani."
"But if Hallgerðr
manages to get another fly into your mouth, then
that will be the death of
you." - i.e. if you swallow the bait she
offers you a second
time...
There are some more examples here:
http://www.usask. ca/english/ icelanders/ proverbs_ %DESSH.html
Ok
yfir þessa flugu gein Grímkell.
Grimkel swallowed this bait.
(Þorsteins
saga Síðu-Hallssonar)
(Lit. G. opened his mouth wide over this
fly.)
þá tók hann við flugu þessi
"then he took this
bait"
(Eybyggja saga)
Þóttist Sigmundr nú yfir flugu ginit hafa, er
hann tók við meynni af Torfa
lit. "S. thought now that he'd gaped over a
fly when he received the
girl from Torfi (i.e. been conned)"
(Harðar
saga)
--- In norse_course@ yahoogroups. com,
"Patricia Wilson"
<originalpatricia@ ...> wrote:
>
>
There was a part in Alan's translation that I appreciate better now
- it
is
> where the very idiomatic phrase of Hallgerd putting a fly in
his
ear/mouth
> or whatever - was that a kind of proverb I saw the
word of - fly -
and was
> so convinced that I had it all wrong - I
"cribbed" from MM&HP and
forgot to
> mention it in my
translation.
> Could Alan please explain how he got round that - it is
the more literal
> translation s that
> I am finding
sticky
> Kveðja
> Patricia
> We have such proverbs - what
about - send him with a flea in his ear -
> similar