Of course Alan!. And this shows that sometimes the problem with
dictonaries is that they reflect the state of knowledge of the time
when they were written...

In fact, there was some scholarly debate on the issue. Some authors
see the goði as a priest, while others see him just as a chieftain. A
third positions sees them as both things, either at the same time, or
as "periods".

I´ll take the last view: in saga-age iceland, you´ll see the goðar
struggling in the thing much more often than sacrificing or so...If
this was a translation of a runestone, I´ll also translate it for
"priest" with less doubts...

Cheers,
Santiago

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "AThompson" <athompso@...> wrote:
>
> Santiago
>
> You may well be right. I do not pretend an in-depth knowledge of the
> history of Iceland - hence my translation is not based in my knowledge
> of saga-age icelandic society, simply on GT Zoega's dictionary gloss
> which for goði gives `heathen priest, chief (in Iceland during the
> republic)
>
> Cheers
> Alan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of santiago barreiro
> Sent: Saturday, 27 September 2008 3:22 AM
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [norse_course] Re: Njall 115 end + beginning 116 / Alan's
> Translation
>
>
> A small comment:
>
> Hvítanesgoða should not be translated as (White-ness-priest). I will
> translate it as "The Chieftain of the White Ness" or "The chieftain of
> Hvítaness". But not "priest". The saga-age icelandic goðar where far
> closer to a chieftain than to any kind of priest...
>
> Santiago
>
> _____
>
>
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