Re: A newcomer in your midst!!

Before this simple sentence gets mangled any further,
I am unable to keep silent:

Hún = she
er = is
mær = a maiden (i.e. virgin)
ok = and
henni = her (feminine, dative, singular)
þjóna = serve (present, 3. person, plural)
þær = they, those (feminine, nominative, plural)
er = who
meyjar = maidens (virgins)
andask = die

The verb ÞJÓNA takes a dative of the person served, i.e.
A serves B = A (nom) þjónar B (dat). Thus: hann þjónar
henni = he serves her; hún þjónar honum = she serves him;
ek þjóna þér = I serve you; þú þjónar mér = you serve me.

"She is a virgin and those who die virgins serve her."

No more bad grammar, please. And in case anyone hadn't
noticed, this sentence comes from Gylfaginning, and
refers to the goddess Gefjun.

Regards,
Pelle

--- In norse_course@..., Dan Bray <dbray@...> wrote:
> Heil Sarah!
>
> My translation (probably imperfect) would be: "She is a maiden, and
her
> servants (noun, not verb) (they) are dead (or dying) maidens."
However,
> I'm not sure of the significance of using the reflexive form
(andask)
> rather than a participle after "er", except that it's necessary to
> change the meaning from "breathing, alive" to "breathing one's last,
> dead". Some context would help. Anyone?
>
> Sarah Bowen wrote:
>
> > Hello! My name's Sarah and I'm a new recruit to the world of Old
> > Norse! I've been working through a couple of very useful
tutorials I
> > found on the internet. I'm a bit puzzled by one small phrase and
> > wondered if one of you could help... [please excuse the fact that
I
> > don't have the Icelandic alphabet on my computer - is it
downloadable
> > from somewhere??] Hon er maer, ok henni thjona thaer er meyjar
> > andask.She is a maiden and they serve her ...................??
Thanks
> > for your help.Bye for now, Sarah.
> >
> >
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> > - Keth
> >
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> --
> Daniel Bray
> dbray@...
> School of Studies in Religion A20
> University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia
>
> "Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an
> unidentified source." Ron Nesen