----- Original Message -----

From: xigung

To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 2:50 PM

Subject: [norse_course] Re: Hrafnkell 633-654

Hi Patricia,

I am also interested in the problem:
"veiður" is the *catch*. (The amount of animals
you manage to catch, either hunting or fishing).

And so the 1st sentence roughly means that "During the same
summer, there was a lot of fish [to be caught] in the Lagarfljót"

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
&&
&&   Á því sama sumri lagðist veiður mikill í Lagarfljót.
&&   Af slíku gerðist mönnum búshægindi í héraðinu,
&&   og það hélst vel hvert sumar.
&&
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Then the next sentence begins with "Of such [fish/catch] ..."
"slíku" must here be of the weak declination, Dative female singular,
because "af" takes the dative, and it must refer back to the
feminine noun "veiður" (the catch) in the previous sentence.

The verb "gerast" (reflexive form of gera) next occurs
in the indicative præterite mode, 3rd singular: he/she/it
made/did itself. I'd say the passive form is the most
suitable interpretation of the reflexive mode here.
Hence, in English: "it was made" (gerðist). I choose
a suppressed [it] as subject here, because the sentence
has no noun in the Nominative case that can qualify as subject,
except possibly "hægindi"

For the English translation I'd also like to add the word
"available" as adverb and we have "Of such catch it was made
available ..."   Then follows "mönnum" (Dative plural : for the men):

"Of such catch it was made available for the men ..."

Finally the difficult word "búshægindi", which seems to be
of the *hapax* type (only in Hrafnkels saga). However,
"hægindi" (n.) is less uncommon, and can mean a cushion,
a pillow, or some help or relief. "bú" will then refer to
the farm or the household. I guess "búshægindi" (n.) can only
be plural, because it means a general kind of help or convenience.
However, the given form can be both Nominative as well as Accusative.
The final result would then be

  "Of such [catch] [it] was made available for the men household
   help in the county".

I agree that the translation of the verb does not come easy
in English. Maybe it comes more naturally in Norwegian, e.g.:
"Av slik [fangst] gjorde det seg husholdningshjelp for
menneskene i herredet." [ble det]

Or perhaps even better in German:

Aus solchem [Fang] schuf sich Haushalthilfe für die Menschen
im Gau."


Best regards

Xigung