Grace, Alan, Patricia,

Just in case you're in any doubt about this, Magnús Magnússon and
Hermann Pálsson are definitely correct in their interpretation of 'og
mun mig eigi tjóa að letja' as "and it is no use attempting to
dissuade me."

BV's explanation can't be right because

1. the person whom it avails (or not) would be in the DATIVE, not the
accusative. A native speaker of Icelandic has confirmed this for me.

'ok því bið ek þeim eigi lengra, at ek ætla, at mér muni ekki tjóa'
"but I won't ask for anything further on their behalf, because I
suspect that it won't do me any good". (Völsunga saga).

2. "It is of no use to me to [try to dissuade myself?]" would be
nonsensical in the context. It's Ósvífur who has been trying to
dissuade his son. Þorvaldur has just made it clear that he WANTS to
make the attempt. Þorvaldur isn't trying to dissuade anyone, least of
all himself!
_____________________________________________________________

Incidentally, my comment on the word order was in no way meant to
imply that there was anything wrong with it as Old Norse, only that it
was curious to me looking at it from an English point of view. 'og
mun mig eigi tjóa að letja' could also be expressed as 'og mun eigi
tjóa að letja mig' (you can find lots of similar examples on Google).
Þorvaldur means something along the lines of:

og mun þér eigi tjóa að letja mig
"and it won't do you any good to try to stop me"

og mun engum tjóa að letja mig
"and it won't do anyone any good to try to stop me"
"and it's no use anyone trying to stop me"

LN

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Blanc Voden" <uoden@...> wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> "og mun mig eigi tjóa að letja"
>
> or as most natives understand it fully:
> "og mun það mig eigi tjóa að letja"
>
> Það tjóar mig eigi: It is of no use to me to .....
>
> Hope this is of some use to you
>
> My Best Blanc.