Heil :)


> Thank you for your thought-provoking comments :-) Coming from an
> English-speaking mindset, I do find the way of expressing directions in
> Icelandic hard to master so I think I need to pass this one over to
> someone who knows better - Haukur, can you help us please?

I'll try - just as long as you remember
that I can make mistakes too :)

Now, all of you seemed to have some trouble with this:

"Maðr hét Auðunn, vestfirzkr at kyni ok félítill.
Hann fór útan vestr þar í fjörðum..."

The first sentence is straightforward and tells us that
Auðun(n) is a native of the West Fjords in Iceland.
I think Sarah has to be right when she translates
'fór útan' as "went abroad". If the sentence ended
with 'vestr' I think there wouldn't be any problems
translating it as "he went abroad to the west".
However, as was pointed out, the phrase 'þar í fjörðum'
doesn't fit well into that contest. One would expect
something like (the awkard) 'þaðan úr fjörðum'.

Now, if you follow the next few passages you discover
that the first place Auðunn goes to isn't actually
Greenland (in the west) but Norway assuming the note
'hann átti bú á Moeri' is relevant.

So, what does it mean? I'm inclined to understand it
as a description of the place Auðun is when he goes
abroad. He goes abroad and he is 'þar' when he does it.
The only place mentioned already is the West Fjords so
this is what 'þar' must refer to. This is strengthened
by the phrase 'í fjörðum' which must refer to the same.

Taking this into account the only choice I see is to
take 'vestr' to mean "in the west". The passage could
then be paraphrased like this:

"He was over there, west in the Fjords, when he went abroad."


> As for "vera eptir" I think it is only the context which gives us the
> slightly different meanings. I suppose English is not too dissimilar...
> if a foreigner said "he was after" in some contexts it doesn't take too
> much mental gymnastics to realise they mean "he was there after something
> else happened, he continued to be there, he was left behind". Whereas
> "sumarit eptir" is more straightforwardly the summer after or the
> following summer - because seasons can't generally be left behind.
>
> Are you able to follow my train of thought, or am I just talking
> gobbledegook?!! Perhaps we need Haukur to step in again here!

:) I think you're very much on top of things here, Sarah.

Kveðja,
Haukur