Thank's for the contribution!

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-----Original Message-----
From: Haukur Thorgeirsson
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 4/8/2003 12:15 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Poem and Story

Heil!

Funny to read a NC-style story that neither I nor Óskar wrote.

> Maðr heitir Haraldr, er konungr. Hann á brand, geir,
> góðan hest ok langan bát. Er Haraldr glaðr maðr því
> at hann er góðr konungr ok er illr víkingr eigi. En
> Haraldr eigi á gylltan baug ok hann vill gylltan baug.
> Haraldr kennir illan þjóf er á gylltan baug. Þa ferr
> Haraldr því at hann vill finna þjófinn ok taka bauginn.
> Nú eltir þjófinn ok er Haraldr sér hann, kallar: "Þjófr!
> Kom þú hér nú." Þjófrinn er hvæddr en hann flýr eigi. Segir:
> "Heill Haraldr konungr! Ek Eiríkr heiti. Hví ert þú hér?
> Hví vilt þú mæle mér?" Þá svarar Haraldr: "Þú hefir gylltan
> baug, er ek vil eiga. Gef mér bauginn eða ek veg þik!"
> Nú er Eiríkr hræddr mjök ok segir: "Veg mik eigi, Haraldr
> konungr. Ek gef þér bauginn. Veg mik eigi." Nú gefr Eiríkr
> Haraldi bauginn ok þá flýr Eiríkr. Er Haraldr sér Eiríkr flýja,
> hann hlær ok kallar: "Flýj illr þjófr! Flýj ef vilt þú deyja
> eigi!" Nú Haraldr konungr er glaðr mjök því at hann á gylltan baug.

Hee-hee, this is amusing :) The grammar is mostly quite good.
Here are some hopefully helpful notes.

* The imperative of 'flýja' is 'flý'. A word can never end
with a 'j' in Old Norse.

* I don't understand the sentence "Hví vilt þú mæle mér?"

* You're trying too hard with the word order. The only major
difference between normal English and Old Norse word order
is the V2-rule. For example there is an error in your last
sentence: "Nú Haraldr konungr er glaðr" should be "Nú er
Haraldr konungr glaðr" (or "Er nú Haraldr konungr glaðr").

* Although pronoun-drop is more prominent in Old Norse than
English it is not normally done as much as in the story above.
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You got this one from the html attachment - yes?
There may be some mistakes since I was the dork who
typed it up (- I type with 3 to 4 thumbs - the remaining
being fingers). I hope Haraldr will step up and declare any
mistakes that I have made.

I assume that 'pronoun-drop' is the leaving out of pronouns?
Is it, then, usual to include hann, ek, etc. - even though, unlike the
infinitive/3rd p. pl., the ending (I guess) makes the subject
explicit?

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> Falla Allir
>
> líf kømr eigi langr mönnum er vilja lifa
> né slíkr maðr svangr vita verðr spakr
> fáir eru er sjá finna meðan falla allir

I don't quite get this poem :)

I could maybe help with the grammar if I knew what the meaning
was supposed to be. And what about the metre?

Kveðja,
Haukr
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As for my, so-called, poem, I never really intended it to be taken
as such. I have a working ON vocabulary of about 100 words. My
understanding of ON poetry would be significantly worse than this.
In fact, I can't say I even know what you mean by meter.

The adjective, langr, is refering to the neuter noun líf (I failed
to ask myself whether this is proper). In all cases, er is a
relative pronoun.
I will tell you, somewhat literally, what, I
thought, I was trying to say -

life comes not long to men who want to live
nor such a one hungry to know becomes wise
few they are that see find while all fall


Raymond