'mannaforráð fyrir yðr'
"his authority (as a
priest/chieftain) over you"
'at bezta kosti'
"at best", "at most", "and
that's if you're lucky!"
'kostr' "choice, option, oportunity,
term/condition", something
presented to you by whoever has power in a
particular situation, or
just what option is made available by fate.
'bezti kostr', the best
you can hope for.
This seems well LN thanks
much, but how did my PC receive it with the strange characters in it
'Austfjörðu' for example
Maybe Grace used a "certain" way in the fashion
that I did, they want to be able to avoid an ambush by a resentful Hrafnkell,
and get the heck out in one piece.
"Just this once" I felt the same way about those
words, they sounded a trifle ominous
Thanks a bundle LN
Patricia
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 9:27
AM
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Hrafnkell
525-541/Alan's Translation
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com,
"AThompson" <athompso@...>
wrote:
>
> Here´s my
translation. Some bits (underlined) I am not confident
about so
suggestions from the ‘second opinion’ or others would be
most welcome
J
'mannaforráð fyrir yðr'
"his authority (as a
priest/chieftain) over you"
Just as Grace and Patrica have it.
Compare 'ráða fyrir' "rule over".
'at bezta kosti'
"at best", "at
most", "and that's if you're lucky!"
'kostr' "choice, option, oportunity,
term/condition", something
presented to you by whoever has power in a
particular situation, or
just what option is made available by fate.
'bezti kostr', the best
you can hope for.
'at þú hafir svá
þinna mála'
"that you'll have that for your court-cases"
Genetive
plural, neuter. (Dative pl. would be þÃnum málum.) Could
we think of it as: this is what you'll get OUT OF them? I'll look
out for parallels. I don't see anything about this in Gordon or
Alvarez. I wonder if there's anything in Faarlund about the
genitive being used ablatively like this.
'um sinnsakar'
"(just)
this once". Contraction of 'um sinns sakar/sakir' "for the
sake of
the time/occasion". sakar/sakir = acc.pl. Now there's an
ominous little phrase. But I don't hear any alarm bells ringing in
Sam's head...
'Austfjörðu'
Regular acc.pl. for u-stems!
Just like skjöldr (see Gordon
paragraph 88). Zoega, p. 536, calls
it the "3rd declension" and
uses 'köttr' as the example. Notice the
u-mutation. But in Modern
Icelandic the acc.pl. of u-stems has
become -i by analogy with the i-
stems [
http://www.lexis.hi.is/beygingarlysing/no/kk/sb/fjo2rd1ur.html
], so
MIc.'firði' = OIc. fjörðu.
'nökkura þá
leið'
'nökkura' f.acc.sg., modifying 'leið', rather than
adverbial. "Do
you know any/some route (nökkura...leið) to the
Eastfirths that
isn't a generally frequented way?" I think 'þá' is
the
demonstrative, also f.acc.sg. modifying 'leið'. Hard to
translate
separately, but here's my very clumsy attempt: "any way to the
Eastfirths, *such a one* that it wouldn't be a generally used
route." In other words, I think 'þá' is there to anticipate the
subordinate clause and to mark out this hypothetical 'leið', that
Sámr might know, as identical to the subject of the subordinate
clause. I could be wrong.
I noticed that Grace and Patricia
each used "certain", a certain
way. I would go with "any route" or
"some way", since he's not
asking about a particular way he already has in
mind, just any way
that meets his specifications of being off the beaten
track.
Llama Nom