Hi Thomas,
I do not know the answer to your question - off hand.
I would just have to go look for examples, I guess.
All I can really do is compare with modern languages
(Scandinavian). For example:

"Jeg så henne ride i aftensol."
{ I saw her ride in [the] evening sun[light].}
Then, in this example "ride" is the infinitive of
the verb that means [horse]riding.

What I do find in the grammar books, is that this kind of
consruction has the technical name _accusative_with_infinitive_;
and that might be useful to know for those who have grammar
books, but do not know what subject to look under.

"Ek sá hana ríða í aptansól."

Many grammar books are however so brief that they don't
mention it. But if it is mentioned you will usually
find it in the chapter that discusses _syntax_.

The reason why it is called _accusative_with_infinitive_
is because, referring to the example, 'hana' is object
of the main sentence (I saw *her). But the object of
the first sentence is at the same time subject of the
second sentence (*she rode in the evening sun).
Thus we have the situation that a word is both
subject and object at the same time. Apparently the
language rules then say that this affects the form of
the verb in the second sentence, which now has to be
an infinitive. ('hana ríða', instead of 'hon ríðr/reið')

For speakers of English all this must however be very
natural. Here an example from modern lyrics:

"I saw her standing there.."

For German such constructions are apparently much more rare.
Now that the problem has been posed, is it then illegal
to say in German "Ich sah sie dort beim Tisch sitzen"?
Yes, here I found a reference for that (Duden Grammatik,
§1217): No. 7. Akkusativ mit Infinitiv:
"Ich sah sie näher kommen."
"Sie ließen ihm gehen."
{I saw her coming closer/They let him go}
In both examples the verbs in the second sentences (kommen/gehen)
are in their infinitive forms, and the subjects of these verbs
are both accusatives (sie/ihm).

"Jeg så henne komme nærmere".
"De lot ham gå".

Ek sá hana koma náligri. / Þeir létu honom ganga.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some real examples from ancient Norse texts
(the foregoing were just constructed examples):

"Sá þeir borg standa á vo,llum no,kkurum." (Snorra Edda)
"Hvar sáttu brúði bíta hvassara" (Þrymskviða)
"Opt hefi ek heyrt yðr þat mæla."(Heimskringla)
"Sverð veit ek liggja í Sigarshólmi."(Helgakviða Hjo,rvarðssonar)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let us look at this last sentence, to see if we can obtain
an answer to your question, with the reservaton that when
it comes down to it, only a direct quote will do - which
I do not have at present.

"Sverd vet jeg ligge på Seiersholmen."
"Schwert weiß ich liegen auf der Siegesinsel."
"A sword I know lie [laying] on Victory Isle."

All three examples probably sound very poetic to the users
of the 3 languages. The English example is probably even wrong.
Better perhaps is "A sword I know that lieth on Victory Isle".

In Norwegian, it would probably be a better (less of
'high poetry') to say:

"Jeg vet om et sverd som ligger på Seiersholmen."
(Ich weiß von einem Schwert, das auf der Siegesinsel liegt.)
{I know of a sword that lieth on Victory Isle.}

The question now is whether this last construction can also
be used in Old Norse. But here, in lack of a direct quote,
one has to take recourse to construction. And then
the problem is (as always) that it really is impossible to
know if any one would ever have said it like that a thousand
years ago. Okay, here is my attempt at constructing a
"translation":

"Ek veit til sverðs, þat er liggr í Sigarshólmi."

I think Haukr or Eysteinn will be able to elucidate further,
and point out my [probable] errors in using ON, as well
as finding further textual examples.

Bless. Bless.

Keth

>Lesson 3:1.2 and Exercise 3:3.1
>
>From lesson 3:1.2
>"This construction, usually with a main verb meaning to see, watch,
>hear, feel, sense, etc, indicates that the subject sees/hears/senses
>the object performing an action, which is put into the infinitive
>form (without any marker). ON examples:
>Ek sé Óláf konung koma. I see King Olaf come.
>Vér sjám manninn kalla. We see the man shout.
>Hann heyrir drauginn mæla. He hears the ghost speak."
>
>
>I have a question as regards the absence of relative pronouns in ON.
>I compare this to, say, German's use of them. This is from lesson 3
>(I'm new to ON). Please don´t respond about German's special use of
>similar ON constructions of fühlen, helfen, hören, and other
>Ersatzinfinitiv statt 2. Partizip.
>
>
>e.g. Ek sé mann taka ost. I see a man take(or taking) cheese.
>
>The German must needs have the relative pronoun.
>Ich sehe einen Mann, der den Käse nimmt.
>I see the man, who(that) takeS the cheese.
>"Take" isn´t one of the verns that works in this construction like
>those mentioned above: Ich sehe einen Mann den Käse taken.
>
>
>Q: Is it possible to use a relative pronoun in ON: "Ek sé mann, er
>tekr ost/er ost tekr." Most likely "já", but it never hurst to ask.
>
>
>Þakk,
>Thomas (Anglo-Saxon Þakwra)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Sumir hafa kvæði...
>...aðrir spakmæli.
>
>- Keth
>
>Homepage: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
>
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