At 4:37:01 PM on Thursday, September 30, 2010, Fred and
Grace Hatton wrote:

> "Hvat gagn er í honum?
> "What uses is (it) to him?

'What use is in him?', i.e., 'What's he good for?', 'Of what
use is he?'

> Ek hefi trúnarðareiða svarna Falfaðni konungi sakir ykkar
> barns - svá at þit fengið lifat, ok lifat konunglega, sem
> sómir ykkr.

> I have sworn oaths to King Palpatine for the sake of your
> child - so that you will be able to live and live royally
> as befits you.

<Ykkar> is dual, 'of you two', and <barns> tells who the
other one of the two is: 'for the sake of you and [the]
child'. So are <þit> and <ykkr>: 'so that you two' and 'as
befits the two of you'.

> Farirðu með Víga-Óbívan, fyrirspár konungr at þú deyir á
> Íslandi.

> Were you to go with Slayer Obiwan,

Or simply 'If you go'.

> (the) king's prediction (is) that you die in Iceland.

<Konungr> is nominative, so it can't be 'king's', and if
<fyrirspár> is from the noun <fyrirspá> 'prophecy,
prediction', it must be nom. or acc. plural. These pieces
just don't fit together in this sentence, so we need to look
for another source for <fyrirspár>. Zoëga and CV don't have
entries for it, but there's a verb <fyrirspá> 'to foresee'
that's basically just an extension of the verb <spá>, and
<fyrirspár> is the 3rd person present indicative, just
what's needed with <konungr> as subject: '[the] king
foresees that you die in Iceland'.

> Komdu undan nú!
> You come down now!

All of the <X-an> directional adverbs are 'from X'; in
particular, <undan> is 'from under', not 'down', so this is
literally 'come from under now'. However, it's actually an
idiom, 'escape now'. Neither Z. nor CV has it exactly, but
Z. has <koma e-m undan> 'to help one to escape' and <komast
undan> 'to escape'. There's also <flýja undan e-m> 'to flee
from someone'. I honestly don't know whether an exact model
for Jackson's usage can be found in the sagas, or whether
he's made a straightforward extension of these usages.

> ... ok allir þar undruðusk þenna seið, ...
> ... and all those were amazed at that magic ...

<Þenna> is the proximal demonstrative: 'this magic'.

Brian