Thanks LN for comments. I have inserted a few responses to your comments below.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of llama_nom
Sent: Sunday, 4 June 2006 5:46 PM
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Njal Chapt. 2, second half / Alan's Translation

 

 

 

Hann á og kaupskip í siglingum.

 

MM & HP: "and in addition, he owns a trading ship which is at sea just

now."

 

 

 

Hugsa svo um bóndi að bróðir minn mun mér mjög hafa fram haldið fyrir

ástar sakir.

 

MM & HP: "'You must realise,' he said to Mord, 'that brotherly love

makes Hoskuld exaggerate my virtues.'"

 

 

 

viljið

 

Here's another small difference between the standardised medieval

orthography and modern.  In the older language, -ji- in endings was

contracted to -i-.  Thus "you-pl. will/want/wish": viljið (new) =

vilið. (old).  And the nominative singular of the noun meaning "will,

wish, desire": vilji (new) = vili (old).  And later in this chapter:

sitji (new) = siti (old), 3rd person sg. subjunctive of 'sitja'.

 

 

 

> Mörður svaraði: "Hugsað hefi eg kostinn. Hún skal hafa sex tigu hundraða

> og

> Mörð answered: `I have considered the terms. She shall have sixty

> hundreds and

> 

> skal aukast þriðjungi í þínum garði

> (it) shall be increase by a third into your house

 

MM & PP: "Unn's dowry from me will be sixty hundreds, which you are to

increase by half".  Question: so does that mean that Hrut has to match

the contribution from the bride's family, or that he has to match it

twice over?  At a guess maybe the first?

 

I can´t say I had any definitive view of what these terms actually meant.

 

MM and HP have a footnote here: "The hundred (in fact 120) refers to

ells of woollen cloth, and was a common method of computing value.

Six Icelandic ells (approximately 3 yards) was equivalent to one

Icelandic ounce, and there were 8 ounces in the legal mark.  Thus

Unn's dowry was 150 marks.  Hrut's inheritance (later in this chapter)

of "200 marks" was actually 240 marks.  In terms of livestock, one

milch cow or six sheep were worth nearly 2 marks at this time.  Unn's

dowry was equivalent to 80 cows, Hruts inheritance to 128 cows."

 

 

 

 

> Hrútur mælti: "Þenna kost vil eg og höfum nú votta við."

> Hrút spoke: `These terms (sg) I want also and we have now to attest to

> (them).'

 

 

 

MM & HP: "'I accept these terms,'" said Hrut. "Let us now call in

witmesses."

 

'votta' is the accusative plural of 'vottur' "witness".  To find it in

in Old Norse dictionies, see 'váttr' (Zoega lists the phrases: hafa

vátta við, nefna vátta).  The preposition 'við' here has the sense of

"present" (as in "here with us").  This is another example of the

change á > o after v.  Compare: váru > voru; svá > svo; ván > von.

 

I treated ‘votta’ / ‘vátta’ as the verb ‘to witness, affirm, attest’ based on a construction equivalent to the English ‘to have to do something, ie “hafa + infinitive” I take it hafa cannot be used in this way in ON / Icelandic?

 

Why isn´t ‘við’ simply the 1st person plural pronoun, as in ‘við höfum’?

 

 

Hallbjarnarvörðum

 

MM & HP: "Hallbjorn Cairns"

 

Definitely plural, which my translation missed L

 

 

Þá reið í mót þeim Þjóstólfur, son Bjarnar gullbera úr Reykjardal

 

'úr' "from (out of)" usually appears in the standardised old spelling

as 'ór', although both forms were used in medieval times; an earlier

form was 'ýr'.  MM & HP "Then Th. son of B. g. from R. came riding

towards them"  They treat it more like part of the name or

description, rather than saying necessarily that he's just come from

there when he meets them.  Question: is it possible to tell just from

the syntax whether it's him or his father that is "from Reykjadalur"?

 I suppose semantically it might as well apply to either.

 

I agree, it should be where he comes from rather then where he has just come from, and I would expect that it referes to Özur, rather than his dad. There are probably lots of Reykjadalur in Ísland but if this is referring to the one near Hveragerði, then it is one of the most beautiful day hikes I have ever done!

 

Össur

 

In standardised old spelling: Özurr.  Also in this chapter:

fjárvarðveislu (new) = fjárvarðveizlu (old).

 

 

 

 

sem fyrst

> at the first (opportunity)

 

That's right; MM & HP: "as soon as possible".

sem + superlative "as ... as possible"

 

 

 

 

Höskuldur fór og þeir báðir.

 

Not a correction, I just thought I'd call attention to this very

un-English idiom.  MM & HP: "and together they rode to the ship"

 

 

 

 

En er Hrútur spurði þetta

 

Another example of 'en' "and" rather than "but", I think.  In English

(to me at least), "but" implies a much stronger contrast, or that the

second clause is something unexpected which isn't an obvious thing to

happen after the first clause, but Old Norse / Icelandic 'en' is often

used to express a much weaker contrast, such as a change in subject

from one character to another.

 

 

 

 

> en hann leiddi þig til arfs á Gulaþingi og munu nú taka óvinir þínir

ef þú and he pronounced you to inheritence (as his heir?)

 

Yes, MM & HP: "He named you as his heir"

 

 

 

 

> Eigi hendir svo

 

As BV says.  It won't happen thus.  That's not going to happen.  MM &

HP: "That's out of the question".  The present tense on its own can

have a future meaning.

 

Sure. That´s how I saw it.

 

 

 

fékk

 

Earlier spelling: fekk.

 

 

 

 

 

> komu að við Hernar á Hörðalandi og sigldu síðan austur til Víkur.

> came to (land) by Hernar in Hörðaland and sailed afterwards to Vík

> (Bay).

 

Hernar.  MM & HP "the Hern Islands"

Vík.  Oslo Fjord

 

 

 

 

 

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