Sæll Haukur!
And thank you for your comments and thank you to everyone else who chipped
in with their insights, background information etc all of which helped to
put this in context. I´ve found this discussion extremely helpful and I
feel I´ve learned a lot more than if I´d just sat in a lecture and been told
the "right" answer. (And good for you, Laurel, for sticking by your
original translation!)

Kveðja,
Sarah.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Haukur Thorgeirsson" <haukurth@...>
To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 12:11 AM
Subject: Re: [norse_course] Hrafnkel 101-125 / Laurel's


> Sæl Sara, og þið hin :)
>
>
> > Thanks for your comments. I guess at this stage we need an Icelander to
tell us the true interpretation of these lines about the horses - were they
unused to being ridden or not used to running away! Sometimes language is
not entirely logical and you have to rely on intuition to get the real
meaning... maybe Haukur could help us here.
>
> Your questions may change, but by the gods, my answer will stay the same
:)
>
> 1. It's a phrasal verb
> 2. Check the dictionary
>
> http://www.northvegr.org/zoega/160.php
>
> In this case you find that "ganga undan" means "to escape, to absent
oneself".
>
> I suppose this is somewhat important for an analysis of the story. It
seems that
> fate or some supernatural power (perhaps the horse himself) is forcing the
poor
> fellow to choose his own downfall. This, in turn, seems to be a
folkloristic motive
> indicating an oral tradition as a basis for this much debated saga
(perhaps more
> on this later).
>
>
> > As for the form skjörr (sorry, my computer won´t do an o with a squiggle
underneath)... given that the masculine form is skjarr, I guess you would
expect skjör for the fem sing and neut plur, hmmm. Any insights here,
please Haukur or anyone else?
>
> Like 'kyrr', 'skjarr' has two r's in its root. This is indeed not obvious.
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur
>
>
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