Re: help with translation?

> I'm a beginning student of Old Norse.
> I'm wondering if there's a Norse word
> that has roughly the same semantic domain
> as English "end", in the sense of "death".
> That is, an indirect word for "death" that
> might also be used for other kinds of
> finishing/completion/stopping, eg., the
> "end" of a story.
>
> Does the ON word for "end" have the same
> connotations as the English one? If not,
> can anyone tell me which ON word might be
> the closest translation of English "end",
> (as in, "so he met his end"?)

Well, there are these lines in Ynglingatal:

Veitk Eysteins
enda folginn
lokins lífs
á Lófundi,

Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson interpreted: "ég veit, að endi örlagaþráðar Eysteins
var falinn á Lófundi"

Finnur Jónsson translated simply: "Jeg ved, at Østens liv avsluttedes på
Lofund."

Samuel Laing "translated":

For a long time none could tell
How Eystein died -- but now I know
That at Lofond the hero fell;
The branch of Odin was laid low,

Coming up with a better English translation is left as an exercise for the
reader :)

Kveðja,
Haukur