"Maðr er nefndr Grímr kamban." could mean "A man is called Grim the
Long Armed." The reason is that Old Norse 'kamba' (weak feminine
noun) means "bundle of hay". People carried these bundles of hay with
the help of something similar to a comb. Grim could probably carry
this bundle with his arms without any extra tools, i.e. he had long
arms. Hence, 'Grímr kamban' means 'Grim the Long Armed'.

Well, it's just a proposition. It probably means something else.

/Annlioåtär

--- In norse_course@..., Arlie Stephens <arlie@...> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 05, 2002 at 11:21:17PM -0000, Haukur Thorgeirsson wrote:
> >
> > Take a look at this page. If you are interested in participating
> > let me know, privately for a simple 'yes' or on list for any
> > relevant thoughts.
> >
> > http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/reader/faerey.html
>
> I like this. I should; I was involved in the off list discussion
which
> led to the project.
>
> It's short and simple enough that I can at least have the illusion
of reading,
> rather than painstakingly translating. (Of course with every saga
seeming
> to begin much the same way, maybe I'm just remembering the
pattern.)
>
> However, once I started actually thinking about grammar, rather
than happily
> reading/skimming, I got into trouble on the 5th word of the first
sentence.
> Possibly I shouldn't try to read Old Norse while half asleep :-(
>
> At any rate, we have:
> Maðr er nefndr Grímr kamban;
> A man was called Grímr kamban. What could be simpler? Well, yes,
it's a name,
> and I recognize it as a name. But where did the -an ending come
from? That
> looks like an accusative masculine adjective ending. But Grímr is
in the
> nominative case, as it should be. And while I'm exposing my
cluelessness,
> what does the word mean? I found a noun "kambr", meaning
both "comb" and
> "ridge" (of hills). Grimr the Comb?! Seems like an odd by name;
moreover,
> I can't see how it would get an -an ending.
>
> --
> Arlie
>
> (Arlie Stephens
arlie@...)