Hi Alan,

If I've understood this right, 'at' is the complement of 'orðit' here,
rather than of 'er'. 'hvat er at orðit' = 'hvat er orðit at'. So the
meaning would be perfect tense, "what has happened," as MM & HP have
it. I'm not sure what exactly 'at' adds to it. Is it like saying
"what's happened HERE" (in this matter, in this business that we're
talking about)?

I'm not familar with the construction you mention 'vera at' + past
participle; do you have an example? A continuous present can be
expressed with 'vera at' + infinitive: kvað hann vera at telja silfr
"said he was counting the money" (Zoega 'vera' 6). And 'at' is
sometimes used with a dative past participle in an absolute
construction: at liðnum vetri "when winter was over." But neither of
these can account for 'hvat er at orðit'.

LN

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "AThompson" <athompso@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks LN
> My query with respect to
> Hvað er að orðið?
> was really about whether this was an example of the continuous present,
> ie vera að + pp. ie Is Höskuld asking `what is happening, what is going
> on here?' Or is he asking someone to tell him what has occurred, which
> would seem to make a bit more sense in the context.
> Kveðja
> Alan