Would subjunctive be either required or possible in Modern Icelandic
with a sentence like:

Veit Þorsteinn eigi, hvat af honum verðr.
"Th. didn't know what had happened to him" (or "what could have
become of him")

I remember reading somewhere in Old Norse a phrase that meant "come
what may" or "whatever happens", but unfortunately I can't think
where at the moment, or what exactly it was--any ideas? I *think*
it had SEM in it, and maybe HVAT, but definitely VERÐR, rather than
VERÐI. Could it have been: hvat sem verðr? Google doesn't have
anything for that though, and I don't know how to do multiple word
searches on the Orðabók Háskólans' text archive. Sorry to be so
vague (subjunctive even:)...

Llama Nom




--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Haukur Thorgeirsson"
<haukurth@...> wrote:

> > Hmmm. Not so sure about "selr". I see what you mean though.

I've

> > emailed my lecturer so hopefully he will get back to me soon.

Failing

> > that, no doubt Haukur could put us out of our misery :-)
>
> Hmm... I'm actually not so sure and can't give
> a definite answer :)
>
> In the old language the choice of subjunctive v. indicative
> was more free and less rigid than in the modern version.
>
> From a quick look it seems to me that the indicative in
> 'selr' is natural and tells us not only that they _plan_
> to do this but that it actually happens.
>
> Somewhat more vaguely the indicative in 'skal' can be taken
> as indication that the thing they are planning to do (having
> the king evaluate the bear) actually transpires.
>
> In the modern written language we would probably use subjunctive
> in both cases. In the spoken language the indicative is sometimes
> used "incorrectly" where the subjunctive is called for.
>
> (Perhaps 'spoken' and 'written' isn't the proper line to draw,
> maybe 'educated' and 'less educated' would be more accurate.)
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur