--- In
norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Haukur Þorgeirsson
<haukurth@...> wrote:
>
> > One that I've been wondering about is this from Hálfs saga:
> >
> > Konungr gaf þeim Handi ok Hrindi land at búa á ok þar með þræl ok
> > ambátt.
> >
> > I have a translation by W Bryant Bachman and Guðmundur Erlingsson
> > which renders this oddly "a man and woman servants as well." How
> > can they tell it's just one man and several women?! Seems more
> > logical to take it as either one of each, or several of each.
Maybe
> > several? What's the going rate for rewarding fishermen for
finding
> > a prophetic merman?
>
> I'd take this as strictly one of each. Are you certain that the
previous
> translators were following the same text as you?
Good point. The introduction says that their translation is based
on the edition of "G. Jonsson (1950)", which must be Guðni Jónsson:
Fornaldar sögur Norðurlanda. I haven't seen this, only Guðni
Jónsson & Bjarni Vilhjámsson: Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, 1943-1944
[
http://www.heimskringla.no/original/fornaldersagaene/index.php ],
and Hubert Seelow's critical edition: Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka, 1981.
Seelow comments on the 1950 Fornaldar sögur, "nur ganz geringfügig
von der vorgenannten Ausgabe, Reykjavík 1943-1944, abweichend."
(diverges only slightly from the aforementioned edition). He
doesn't note any uncertainty over this particular line. His version
agrees with the one I quoted, except that he keeps to the manuscript
spelling.
Konungr gaf þeim Handi ok Hrindi land at búa á ok þar með þræl ok
ambátt. (Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda).
kongr gaf þeim Hanndi ok Hrindi land at bua aa ok þar med þræl ok
ambatt (Seelow, but the 'aa' is a ligature, and there's a diaresis
with two sloping marks // over the 'æ').
All the surviving copies of Hálfs saga go back to the single
surviving 15th c. vellum, which is the basis of Seelow's text, as of
that in Fornaldarsögur. Guðni Jónsson: "Hálfs saga og Hálfsrekka er
til í einu skinnhandriti, Gl. kgl. saml. 2845, 4to, og eru útgáfur
sögunnar byggðar á því. Hér er farið eftir útgáfu A. Le Roy Andrews,
Halle 1909 (Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, nr. 14)." [
http://www.heimskringla.no/original/fornaldersagaene/formali2.php ].