Re: [norse_course] Þáttr Auðunar Vestfirzka / Laurel

Hæ Laurel!

I will try to answer this one, but I think you will get a more comprehensive answer from a native Icelandic-speaker....

I get the feeling that the personal pronoun - here "honum" - is fundamentally redundant but is used as a reinforcer. A bit the way the French say "Moi, je...." or "Qu'est-ce que tu penses, toi?" I've heard it said colloquially in Icelandic too, as in "Þekkir þú hana Söru?" meaning "do you know Sarah?" where both "hana" and "Söru" refer to the same person. I´m not sure that English has this feature - but never having learnt English grammar formally, I could well be wrong!!!

I'm sure Simon Fitton-Brown could give us some examples from other languages too, if he's still with the group.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Sarah.

----- Original Message -----

From: Laurel Bradshaw

To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 4:23 PM

Subject: Re: [norse_course] Þáttr Auðunar Vestfirzka / Laurel

Sarah wrote:

Quick off the mark as ever! and I certainly didn't notice any 'rust' in your translation!!

Well it FELT rusty doing it! LOL!

Only one comment, which is nit-picking rather than vital

Please do nitpick! Isn't that why we're doing this?

Although þá often does mean "then", here it is the 3rd person singular past indicative of þiggja - meaning to accept or receive.

So it does! Thankyou. Although it still made sense (to me) without a "verb" there. (-:

I do have a question about one bit:

ok starfaði fyrir honum Þóri,

and - working - for - him - Þórir

and working for Thorir

The "honum" seemed redundant to me, and I wonder if there isn't more to it. Perhaps it should be "working for HIM (i.e. Thorstein) for Thorir" -- in other words, Audun has been assigned to work for Thorir BY Thorstein??

Laurel

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