Hi Thomas!
 
You're too hard on yourself!  You got most of it just fine, some bits were tricky so I'll go over those...
 
Böðvarr gengr nú til þess rúms...  "rúm" means seat or place on the bench
 
en ekki vill hann þat skipa sem hinn hafði áðr ... "hinn" here means 'the other' (man) so basically B doesn't want to take the seat that the guy he killed had, presumably because it's not near enough to the high-seat for his liking.
 
Heldr þótti mönnum ódælt við Böðvar ... literally, 'rather it seemed to the men overbearing with B' but Gordon glosses this as a phrase meaning 'to think a person difficult to deal with', which I suppose is not too much of a leap from the literal translation.  I always find phrases difficult because they just don't translate literally.
 
ok er þeim hinn mesti íhugi at honum ... literally, 'and is to them the greatest resentment towards him', so maybe they felt...
 
Böðvarr spyrr Hött hverju þetta sætti ... perhaps if you want to get all the detail in, you could add 'why this was so'
 
ógurligt... maybe 'terrible' or 'terrifying' would be better in the context.
 
I think I would just leave out 'if the king's men try to catch it' as it doesn't seem to be in the original.  But the rest of the meaning is just fine here.
 
fé... perhaps 'property' would be better here.
 
ok banna ek öllum mínum mönnum at ganga í nokkurn háska við dýrit... literally 'and forbid I all my men to go into any danger with the animal'
 
en fé ferr eptir því sem auðnar... ahh! another lovely idiomatic use of language here!  Well, Gordon glosses this as 'as fate decides' so this gives us a literal translation of 'but livestock go after that fate decides'.  And in real English we would say something like 'and fate will decide what happens to the livestock' or 'the outcome for the livestock'.  How would you say that in Swedish?
 
Hope this is useful!
Bye for now,
Sarah.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Lindblom
To: group norse course
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 6:15 PM
Subject: [norse_course] BodhwarR transleited

hi,Sarah!
 
I have now translated the latest piece of bodhvarr, this chapter was really a difficult one and I am conviced that my translation is a piece of sshhh.....er...very bad.
Well here is the old norse version of the text:

 

The plot thickens!!

 

Bơðvarr gengr nú til þess rúms sem honum líkaði, en ekki vill hann þat skipa sem hinn hafði áðr. 

 

Hann kippir upp í einhverjum stað þremr mơnnum, ok síðan settusk þeir Hơttr þar niðr ok innar í hơllinni en þeim var skipat.  Heldr þótti mơnnum ódælt við Bơðvar, ok er þeim hinn mesti íhugi at honum.

 

Ok sem leið at jólum, gørðusk menn ókátir.  Bơðvarr spyrr Hơtt hverju þetta sætti; hann segir honum at dýr eitt hafi þar komit tvá vetr í samt, mikit ok ógurligt – “ok hefir vængi á bakinu ok flýgr þat jafnan.  Tvau haust hefir þat nú hingat vitjat ok gơrt mikinn skaða.  Á þat bíta ekki vápn, en kappar konungs koma ekki heim, þeir sem at eru einna mestir.”  Bơðvarr mælti, “Ekki er hơllin svá vel skipuð sem ek ætlaða, ef eitt dýr skal hér eyða ríki ok fé konungsins.”  Hơttr sagði, “Þat er ekki dýr, heldr er þat hit mesta trơll.”

 

Nú kømr jóla-aptann.  Þá mælti konungr, “Nú vil ek at menn sé kyrrir ok hljóðir í nótt, ok banna ek ơllum mínum mơnnum at ganga í nơkkurn háska við dýrit, en fé ferr eptir því sem auðnar; menn mína vil ek ekki missa.”  Allir heita hér góðu um, at gøra eptir því em konungr bauð.

 

and here is my very loose translation of the text which I definetly don´t like:

Bodhvarr now goes to the room  he likes,but he doesn´t want to sit on the same place he used before.In one place he pulls away three men and then Bodhvarr and Höttr sit down there and farther away from the entrance than they had been arranged.

When the time went closer to Christmas ,the king´s men became gloomy. Bodhvarr asks Höttr why; Höttr answers that an animal had came to the hall two winters, and that it was big and awful

-“with wings on it´s back and it always flies it has came here now two autumns and made a lot of damage no weapons can wound that animal and (if )the king´s men try (to catch it) they don´t come home not even the greatest ones.” Bodhvarr said: “The hall is not so well manned as I thought if an animal can devastate the kingdom and take the king´s money.”Höttr said: “It´s not an animal it´s rather a big troll.

Now comes Christmas eve.The king says;”now I want that men should be silent and calm and I forbid everyone from risking their lives (by attacking that animal) but ?????

I do not want to lose my men.and they all promised to do as the king commanded.

 

As you can see i have not translated this  sentence:

Heldr þótti mơnnum ódælt við Bơðvar, ok er þeim hinn mesti íhugi at honum.

and this piece of an another:

en fé ferr eptir því sem auðnar;

 
The first sentence would be very simple to translate if I would know what "ódælt" and "íhugi" mean.
The second one was ..just ..difficult.
 
see ya!!
 
thomas
 

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