Scott,
I think Patricia's answered your question about 'honum' "him",
dative masculine sigular of the pronoun 'hann'.
Patricia,
> I am unable to read text like this without wanting to pounce!!
I know the feeling! Brodeur's translation is almost the same as
yours except for one thing: "It is told of him that he gave to a
wandering woman, IN RETURN FOR her merry-making, a plow-land in his
realm, as much as four oxen might turn up in a day and a night." [
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/index.htm ].
'laun' f.sg. "secrecy" (á laun, með laun "in secret", leyndar-,
leyni- "secret X").
'laun' n.pl. "reward, recompense". Maybe it would be clearer to
translate it loosely as "in return for entertaining him", as a more
literal version could theoretically give the impression that that
she's being rewarded just for being merry herself. Now that would
be a good kingdom to be in.
LN
--- In
norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia"
<originalpatricia@...> wrote:
>
> I would like - as a beginner to this Language - to try my
translation
>
> Frá honum er þat sagt at hann gaf einni farandi konu at launum
skemmtunar sinnar eitt plógsland à rÃki sÃnu þat er fjórir öxn drægi
upp dag ok nótt.
> From Him (dat) is this said that he gave to one (a particular)
traveller woman for (a) secret of pleasures of his one (a
particular) ploughed field in kingdom his (or of his rule) that is
(by) four oxen dragged up day and night
> For a "running" translation
> It is said of him that he gave a certain travelling woman - for a
secret pleasure a field that it took four oxen a day and night to
plough
>
> I an open to correction - and any help will be appreciated, for I
had to try this since I am unable to read text like this without
wanting to pounce!!
> Kveðja
> Patricia
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Scott Humbert
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 8:09 PM
> Subject: [norse_course] "honum"
>
>
> Does anyone know what the word "honum" means? As in this
sentence from the Gylfaginning of the Prose Edda:
>
> Frá honum er þat sagt at hann gaf einni farandi konu at launum
skemmtunar sinnar eitt plógsland à rÃki sÃnu þat er fjórir öxn drægi
upp dag ok nótt.
>
> Is this word a pronoun or an oft-used word that appears in
different forms (like a verb conjugation) so looking it up in the
Norse/English dictionary wouldn't show an entry with that form of
the wrod?
>
> Thanks.
>
> scott