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

>
> Thanks, LN! I have both M & P and Jones, but very often I have trouble
> figuring out how they got from where I am stuck to their translations.
>
> For instance, is the literal sense of "og liggur eigi laust fyrir"
> something a bit like, (she) doesn't lie loose for (the picking)?
> Grace

Yes, or "free for the taking". Zoega lists the idiom under 'lauss',
adj.: 'liggja laust fyrir' "to be easy to seize upon". The adjective
is neuter (not agreeing with the person or object which can be easily
had), I'm guessing because it's adverbial. The alternative is that
it's an impersonal construction; but compare the similar expression
given in the (Modern) Icelandic Online Dictionary: 'liggja á lausu'
"be free for the taking". Google turns up plenty of examples from
Modern Icelandic of 'liggja laus' where 'laus' is declined and has a
more literal/physical meaning of actually lying loose.

I don't know if this helps, but the same idiom appears in Haralds saga
Harðráða. Earl Tostig (ON Tósti), brother of the English king Harold
Godwinson, is trying to persuade Harald Hardrada to invade England:

Það vita allir menn að engi hermaður hefir slíkur fæðst á Norðurlöndum
sem þú og það þykir mér undarlegt er þú barðist fimmtán vetur til
Danmerkur en þú vilt eigi hafa England er nú liggur laust fyrir þér.

"All men know that no such warrior as you has been born in all the
Northern Lands (Scandinavia), and it seems amazing to me that you
would fight for 15 years for control of Denmark, and yet you don't
want to have England which now lies free (before you) for the taking."

Unlike in our example, the complement of 'fyrir' is expressed here,
namely 'þér' "you" (dat.), the person who stands to easily acquire
whatever it is.

There's another example in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar in Heimskringa:

Gullharaldr kom enn til tals við Hákon jarl, ok sagði jarl honum, at
hann hefir nú fylgt hans málum, svá at meiri ván er, at nú muni
konungsríki liggja laust fyrir honum í Noregi:

Laing's translation: "Thereafter Gold Harald had a conference with
Earl Hakon; and the earl told him he had now advanced his business so
far, that there was hope a kingdom might stand open for him in Norway."

In these last two examples, the thing that's free for the taking is
neuter anyway, so it's not clear if there's gender agreement. There
wasn't in Eiríks saga rauða, and the Zoega entry suggests that there
isn't, but I found an example in Bolla þáttr Bollasonar (a
continuation to Laxdoela saga) which does seem to have agreement:

og fylg þú nú virðing þinni er þér liggur laus fyrir.
"and act now according to your honour/reputation (feminine) which will
be easy for you" ??

Óttarr is asking Ljótr to separate the combatants in a fight that's
taking place nearby; I'm not sure if this means "this will be an easy
opportunity for you to show your honorable nature" or that "separating
them will be easy for a man of your reputation" or that "honorable
deeds like this come easily to you." Or maybe none of the above...

LN