Hi,
I've been looking a bit more into the below two questions
over the weekend.

--- In norse_course Xigung wrote:
> Hi Simon !
> . . . you send your message coded in Base64 ? . . .
> The restituted text:
>
> « Þá mælti Vöggr: "Gef þú allra konunga heilastr,
> ok þess strengi ek heit, at verða þess manns bani,
> er þinn banamaðr verðr." Þá mælti konungr, ok
> hló við: "Litlu verðr Vöggr feginn."
> »
> 1. Gef þú - an imperative?
> 2. ok hló við: "Litlu verðr Vöggr feginn." - what it means.
> -------------

What I looked into was the question of the meaning of
the usage of the Imperative in the sentence
1. Þá mælti Vöggr : " Gef þú allra konunga heilastr ... "
And then the use of the Dative in the sentence
2. " Litlu verðr Vöggr feginn. "
Since these two are separate questions, I propose that
I attempt to explain them in separate posts.
(Question 2 was actually the easiest)

Let me just mention here that sentence no. 2 has
been translated by " By little Vøgger becomes happy."
(Actually "Ved lidet bliver Vøgger fornøiet", in the
original Danish translation that I consulted).

Sentence no. 1 was much more difficult to grasp than no. 2,
and the reason was that the Old Icelandic Imperative is
not used in exactly the same way as in modern English;
especially in the above example.


> I agree that gef can be imperative singularis 2nd person
> of GEFA - to give. But I do not understand all the details
> of the sentence, but the point is that he (Vögg) in
> gratitude promises to revenge the king if someone should
> kill him. Then the king laughs. But right now I do not
> understand why it says LITLU. As far as I can see it is
> a dative form of "lítill" (small/little). But I do not
> understand how the dative applies here. (Vöggr will not
> be very happy?)
>
> I will take a look at Paul Hermann's translation again.
> From what I have seen, his translations are fairly accurate.
> Please also take a look at Guðni Jónsson's edition which
> is on the net. It differs from the pages you are using.
> (are they from Gordon?)

Best,
Xigung