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

>
> > María var alltaf svo andstyggileg. Þegar Ólafur kæmi segði hún sér
> > áreiðanlega að fara.
> >
> > Maria was always so nasty. When Olaf came she would certainly tell
> > him to leave.
>
> :o This is very much not idiomatic to me.

Sæll Haukur,

That's interesting. Do they have April Fools Day in Iceland? The
book is brand new and has a few printing mistakes in it, but I can't
see how this can be one, as the whole point of citing the example is
as a piece of bizarre long distance reflexivisation. I wonder if some
misunderstanding has crept in somewhere in the line of academic
transmission... Would you use the reflexive in a sentence like the
one we found in Hrafnkels saga?

Þakkar hann þeim broeðrum sína liðveizlu,

According to Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson 'Old Icelandic: A Non-
Configurational Language?' NOWELE 26:3-29 [ http://www.hi.is/%
7Eeirikur/ ], section 3.5, some but not all modern Icelandic speakers
would accept sentences like that. I keep seeing similar examples in
Old Norse, now I'm looking out for them, where the noun possessed
implies some action on the part of the nonsubject person who possesses
it, e.g.

ok mun enn sem fyrr eptir framaverk, at þér munuð laun hyggja vinum
yðrum fyrir sitt starf
and, as always after glorious accomplishments, I expect you'll think
to reward your friends for their trouble
(Ásmundar saga kappabana 3).

enn hvat vilir þér nú bióða Haraldi kononge firir sitt starf?
but what will you offer King Harald for his trouble
(Fagrskinna, The Battle of Stamford Bridge).

But here's one unlike any I remember seeing, where the noun possessed
doesn't imply any action, and where the possessor isn't the subject of
any nearby clause.

Hann kallar ok biðr allþarfliga örninn friðar, en hann segir at Loki
skal aldri lauss verða nema hann veiti honum svardaga at koma Iðunni
út of Ásgarð með epli sín, en Loki vil þat.

Surely they're Idun's apples, aren't they?, not Loki's or Thjazi's.
Could it be a usage peculiar to 'koma' when used transitively, since
this implies that Idun will come, even though she's the object of the
clause. Or is Thjazi laying claim to the apples? Did someone steal
them from the giants in a forgotten myth, or is there a grammatical
explanation?

Llama Nom