At 6:26:59 AM on Saturday, July 16, 2011, Alan Thompson
wrote:

> Thanks Brian. One follow up comment below…

> From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Brian M. Scott
> Sent: Saturday, 16 July 2011 5:24 PM
> To: rob13567
> Subject: Re: [norse_course] Laxdaela Saga 37 part 3 - Rob's Translation

>> Þóttist hann glöggt skilja að hann mundi hafa borið af
>> Eldgrími ef þeir hefðu reynt með sér svo lítið sem fyrir
>> hann lagðist.

>> He bethought-himself clearly to discern (skilja, Z5) that
>> he would have disposed of (bera af, Z10) Eldgrímr if they
>> had put-it-to-the-test between themselves, so little as
>> was-placed before (ie as was needed to overcome?) him (ie
>> beaten by an 80 year old man).

> The last bit seems to be covered at (Z15), <lítit leggst
> fyrir e-n> 'one has but a poor destiny': 'so poor a
> destiny he [had] had'. CV actually has this as an example,
> glossing 'who had been so easily slain, had made so poor a
> defence'; 'so poor a showing he had made' would seem to be
> a reasonably literal version of this reading. I suppose
> that in this culture's terms making a poor showing in this
> setting *is* having a poor destiny.



> Laxdæla Saga, Mál og Menning, 1993 student´s edition
> provides this explanation of the expression: „svo lítið
> sem fyrir hann lagðist: þegar ekki þurfti meira til að
> verða honum að fjörtjóni. e-ð leggst fyrir e-n: eð hendir
> e-n, kemur fyrir e-n“ which I translated (with difficulty)
> as „when (it) needed not more to cause his loss-of-life“

That's pretty much how I read it, too.

> which is similar to the CV gloss and, I think consistent
> with my translation where overcome = slay. No mention of
> destiny in their explanation, if my translation of it is
> correct.

My guess is that they're explaining the usage in this
particular context, while CV and Z were trying to capture a
sense common to this and other instance of the construction.
I've no quarrel with the interpretation that he was easy to
kill, put up a poor defence, etc.; I was just trying to
explain, if only for my own benefit, how that the expression
might have come to have that meaning in this context.

Brian