Thank you Alan - this is mainly what I saw in it - to the extent that
I use a phrase - "I can't live with that" or - "You must live with
it" I wonder if this is where the phrase started - seeing we have so
many similarities in our speach and phrasing - Enlish and Old Norse -
I mean to return to my studies of Old English - to see if it is to be
found there
Kveðja
Patricia
My translation will be a little later - Power Cuts in this part the
Country - only for half an hour today - but my work must be re-done

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@...> wrote:
>
>
> > "Svo líst mér sem málum vorum sé komið í ónýtt efni ef vér skulum
> eiga hafa ein lög allir.
> > `So (it) seems to me as (though) our affairs be (have) come into a
> worthless condition (ie we won´t get anywhere) if we all shall not
> have one law.
>
> Presumably 'eiga' is a typo for 'eigi'. There are different versions
> of this line quoted on the internet. A close match is 'Svo líst mér
> sem málum vorum sé komið í ónýtt efni ef vér eigi skulum hafa ein
lög
> allir.' The Íslenzk fornrit edition has 'Svá lízk mér sem málum
várum
> sé komit í ónýtt efni, ef eigi hafa ein lög allir.'
>
> > En ef sundur skipt er lögunum þá mun sundur skipt friðinum og mun
> eigi mega við það búa.
> > But if (one) is divided asunder for the law, then (one) will be
> divided apart for the peace and (one) will not be able to deal-with
> (see bua, Z4) that.
>
> Simply "if the law is split then peace will be split, and that can't
> be lived (dealt) with (i.e. we can't live with that)" [
> http://www.usask.ca/english/icelanders/proverbs_BNS.html ]. It's
> phrased in this impersonal way in Old Norse only because the verb
> 'skipta' takes dative. When a verb is made passive like this with
the
> auxiliary 'vera' or 'verða', an accusative object becomes the
> nominative subject; but dative and genitive objects remain dative or
> genitive, and the neuter singular past participle of the verb is
used.
>
> Var Oddr þar fundinn ok síðan bundinn.
> Oddr was found there and then bound.
>
> mönnum varð borgit
> the men were saved
>