Wow Xigung! You did a lot of research! Thanks very much for this. It
makes the story much more interesting when you can put it in some kind of
context.
Cheers,
Sarah.
----- Original Message -----
From: "xigung" <xigung@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 1:46 PM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: to Sarah from Jed re- 'foera'
Hi Sarah,
over the week-end I looked at some historical documentation
of what in Norway is called "sæter-drift". The "going to the sæter"
was a big event, as is clear from several old paintings and
engravings, even photos. That is because everything that was
needed for several months needed to be packed. Thus, the "going
to the sæter" looked like a huge expedition, with childeren
and old women getting free rides, but the horses otherwise
mostly being used for luggage and provisions. Thus the old
pictures show a veritable "train" of people, animals and
equipment.
Also in the Ravnkel's saga, there are mentioned several
"milkmaids", and hence Einar wasn't there all by himself.
The horses too had to be brought along,it may be assumed.
With regard to fences, I see that it was customary, at
least in Norway, to drive the cattle into a kind of
"corral" during the night. These were fenced in smaller areas.
In Norway sheep mostly go free now, but they are marked,
and are collected over vast areas during september
and huddled into fenced in enclosures where they are
separated and sorted. Mostly a kind of wooden hurdles
that are tied together after improvised schemes.
But in the older days, it was more common to gather them
in each day. There is also something called "gjel", which
were stone fences, devised to drive the cattle in certain
directions, and through certain gates. Archaeologists find
lots of such "gjel" dating very far back.
Best
Xigung
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Sarah Bowen" <bowensli@...> wrote:
> Hi Alan!
>
> Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this one but I´ve had
the flu and am only just catching up with my emails. (Also apologies
if Jed has already responded and I am repeating old news).
>
> You asked
> How do you know the sheep are the subject here? i.e. in
> .. siðan var foert í sel
>
> Well, to be honest, I deduced this from the context rather than from
the grammar. It seems to be a passive construction and since animals
(specifically, sheep) were driven to shielings by people, I put a
subject in which wasn´t there in the original because English requires
that. As you say, Gordon has fé as a neuter noun meaning cattle,
sheep, money or possessions - when we were doing the Færeyingar saga
we discovered fé can have more the meaning "chattels" (although
that´s rather old-fashioned now.)
>
> Cheers,
> Sarah.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alan Thompson
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2003 7:00 AM
> Subject: RE: [norse_course] to Sarah from Jed re- 'foera'
>
>
> Hi Jed and Sarah.
>
>
>
> As I asked in my posting yesterday: How do you know the sheep are
the subject here? The verb var is 3rd person singular which, normally
would preclude a plural subject but I note the þau fé is used later as
grammatical singular for plural sense, so I can´t rule sheep out on
that score. On the other hand, there hasn´t been any mention of the
sheep in the previous ten sentences of the text, so how could they
suddenly become the understood subject of this sentence?
>
>
>
> While I wasn´t entirely happy with my version, the best I could
come up with was: "He (ie Einarr) was brought (moved) to the shieling.".
>
>
>
> Incidentally, I note that Terry Gunnell´s translation in 'The
Sagas of the Icelanders' (ed. Jane Smiley) (Penguin, 2000) translates
this line: 'The sheep were driven up to a shieling near the head of
Hrafnkelsdal, a place called Grjotteigsssel.' The introduction states
that this translation was based on the main text, AM 551 c 4to, and
notes that the saga is found in more than one version; although Gordon
does not specify which manuscript his text is from. Maybe the sheep
are mentioned explicitly in the some of the other texts.
>
>
>
> Alysseann
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gerald Mcharg [mailto:Gerald.Mcharg@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, 18 November 2003 9:07 AM
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [norse_course] to Sarah from Jed re- 'foera'
>
>
>
> Sarah
>
> I've been looking at Zoega's definitions of 'foera' and
nowhere does he provide examples of it being used in a temporal sense
- but there again he doesn't give examples of it being used as an
impersonal construction either. I've gone off my own interpretation of
Einarr moving himself to the shieling. I like Laura's idea of moving
the sheep better.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jed
>
>
> A Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.
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