--- In norse_course@..., Haukur Thorgeirsson <haukurth@...> wrote:
I compared your translation with Gering's Sæmundar Edda,
and found that the first verse was free from problems.
(at least when I compare the ON text with your excellent
translation, then it seems that it just HAS to be that way)
>
> Hrymr drives from the east;
> [he] has a shield before [himself]
> Jörmungandr {the great staff} turns
> in giant-rage.
> [The] worm drives [the] waves
> and [the] eagle screeches
> Niðfölr {down-pale} tears apart corpses
> Naglfar loosens.
Here the second last verse line has an interesting point:
"slítr naï niþfo,lr". Here the novice (=me) will immediately
think that the word-order says that it is the naï that
tears on the niþfo,lr. But then you notice that the last
word ends in an -r, and that makes it much more likely
that this is the nominative case. One therefore has to
assume that naï is the oblique case, even if one doesn't
know exactly to decline it. In my case I already knew
that "nå" is the dead body. But I need to look it up
in ON and then find that the nominative form ist nár m.
Well, then naï must be the dative (singular???). But it
is still a bit mystifying why the "i" has two dots.
( -i usually indicates dative singular, although Haukur
is of course right, that the answer is acc. pl. but why?)
> [The] ship goes from the east / [A] ship goes from the east
> Múspell's people will come
> over [the] sea
> and Loki steers.
> All sons of [the] fool
> go with [the] wolf
> the brother of Býleistr
> is with them in [the] journey.
Interestingly, Gering's version has the first line as
"Kjóll ferr norþan", that is: A ship (keel?) goes/sails from
the north. The accompanying footnotes further say that many
Edda editions have norþan here. And that includes Finnur Jónsson
(1888, 1905).
The second and third lines are a bit different as well:
"koma munu Heljar of lo,g lýþir, en Loki stýrir;"
For lýþir (nom. pl.) compare German "leute".
Here Heljar is, according to Gering, the genitive of Hel f.=
the goddess by the same name. One wonders why so many
Edda editions write Heljar, when the mS. says Muspells.
(again this includes Finnur Jónsson)
> Notice that the definite article isn't used much in poetry
> so you have to decide whether a given word is definite or not.
> In this case you can take "kjóll" to refer to "a new ship" or
> "the ship already mentioned" (which I find more natural).
I put a little quastion mark after kjóll, because I immediately
recognize it as a variant of "keel" (kjøl), but the dictionary
agrees with Haukur that it means "ship". ON for "keel" turns
out to be "kjo,lr" m. (w. hooked o).
Hope people find these little details to of interest.
And I hope I am not overburdening the list with too many
questions.
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