----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 8:30 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Boðvarr strikes
again!
Sælir Jed og Simon!
My exams are over! No more studying, just
back to earning some money - oh, well!
I held on to this in case Thomas,
Daniel and Laurel wanted to post their translations, but I can always get back
to them separately if they want me to. So here goes...
it looks like this section was more
straightforward, only one or two minor things cropped up...
ok þo hann upp allan... yes, I guess the 'upp' is
a kind of intensifier here, it means 'and washed him thoroughly all
over'.
síðan gekk Böðvarr til þess rúms...
I know rúm means bed in modern Icelandic but in
O.N. it means seat or bench (perhaps because after an evening meal with plenty
to eat and drink, they would fall asleep in an alcoholic stupor at the table!
- sorry, I'm maligning them, I daresay there's a much more appropriate
linguistic reason for the semantic shift!)
hann er svá hræddr at skelfr á honum leggr ok
liðr...
I think it´s interesting that the subject of the
subordinate clause (at skelfr á honum leggr ok liðr) is plural - leg and limb
and yet the verb is in the singular - skelfr. Barnes explains this is
because leggr ok liðr is an expression used to refer to the whole body,
meaning he trembles all over (or from head to toe, which I prefer because it
is an equivalent English expression).
at þessi maðr vill hjálpa sér... vilja also
conveys the meaning want or intend.
Perhaps I'll post up a longer section this week
and see how everyone gets on with it. If anyone else wants to join us,
it's not too late, just pitch in and do what you can.
Kveðja,
Sarah.
Sarah,
Could it be that in the Old Norse psyche, 'leggr
ok liðr' was conceived of as a single entity ? I think I'm saying what
Barnes is saying, but in different words.
If this is so, then it must have
been thought of as a collective noun, and collective nouns like
'government', 'congregation', etc., take a singular verb. Or at least they
used to: if you listen to any news programme, in the UK at least, you will now
hear the presenters say, '.....the government are.....'. When I
was at school mumblemumble years ago, we would have been reprimanded for
saying or writing this. " 'The government is', boy
- can you not write English correctly", the
teachers would say.
According to this dictum, the present newscasters
are using grammar in a slovenly fashion. But are they really? Perhaps the
nation thinks of 'government' not as a collective body, but as many
individuals. Yet with other collective nouns like 'club' ,'society', we would
not be happy in saying 'the club are', 'the society are'
This is what I like about Old Norse, or any other
language; it makes you think, and hopefully, it clarifies your thoughts about
your native tongue. It makes you think about the thought processes
of others who live in different countries, or who lived in other times.
You want to get into their minds. It makes you realise that present-day
English does not set a fixed standard to be emulated by speakers of other
languages. Would any Americans, Australians, Irish, etc, like to comment
on this?
Cheers,
Jed
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