--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "AThompson" <athompso@...>
wrote:

>
> Question 1 relates to the two lines: ‘saurs vara vant, er várum,

viðr, í GrímsbÅ" miðjum’ Firstly I have to question whether this text
from Gordon is accurate because in Gordon´s own glossary, the
phrase ’saurs eigi vant viðr’, cross referenced to the lines in
question, is glossed as ’there was no lack of mud.’ Somehow, ’vara’
has replaced ’eiga.’ I searched the web but could not find an on-
line text of Orkneyinga saga to see which version was correct. Can
anyone say what the correct text should be? And then provide an
explanation?

Sæll Alan,

I think VARA here consists of VAR "was" + the negative suffix
A "not", a poetic alternative to EIGI (cf. Völuspá 'vara sandr né
sær' "there was neither sand nor sea"). So SAURS VARA VANT "of-muck
there-wasn't a-shortage" = "eigi var vant saurs". For the poem, the
metre--in as much as I understand these things--seems much better
with -A than than EIGI.

Llama Nom