--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia" <originalpatricia@...>
wrote:

>
> Seeing my translation - thus - when I did it I was thinking that

thus meant

> "In this way" - like "thus saith Zarathustra" - but then I am a

trifle old

> fashioned
> Kveðja
> Patricia
> When the word order confuses me as it does; I put it down to an
> Ideosyncracy of the language (now there's a thing - and watch for it

next

> time

Sæl Patricia,

Yes, that's the right meaning here, "thus" as in Thus Spake
Zarathustra. Your translation works well and isn't ambiguous in spite
of the dual meaning of 'thus' in English: "and thus would I wish you
to do." It has to mean "likewise, (in this way)", because if anyone
read it with the other meaning "therefore, and so", the sentence would
be incomplete. This ties in with what Eysteinn said about the
Icelandic. I asked if there could be ambiguity in such sentences as
to whether the 'svo' belonged to the main clause or the subordinate
clause.

Eysteinn: But the "svo" can't belong to the main clause, so there is
no choice! If "svo" belonged to the main clause (as is common
in Modern Icel. at least) the object/complement would be missing:

"og svo vildi eg að þú gerðir ..." =
"and then I'd wish that you did (what?)"

A similar example that I came across: Svá vilda ek at væri "I would
want it to be thus." Even if 'svá' could have any meaning it the main
clause, the sentence would be incomplete if it was read like that,
since it begs the question "wish that it would be WHAT/HOW?" That's
not to say that 'svá' can't occur in a main clause in a suitable context:

hann gerði svá, at hann tók öxina
ok þeir gerðu þat, at þeir sóru honum

I asked if 'svá at' and 'þat at' meant basically the same thing in
these two examples.

Eysteinn: For all practical purposes, yes, I would say so. But of
course there is a slight variation in "colour". It is perhaps the
difference between "here's what he did: he took the axe" and "what
they did was that they swore ..." But this is extremely tenuous, and
open to interpretation, of course.

For a theoretical discussion of such sentences, see Faarlund p. 156 --
although I have to admit I don't fully understand the theory presented
there. In Modern Icelandic, 'svo' has another use as well, for which
Eysteinn suggested the following English equivelents: "then", "next",
"in addition", "also". Here is an example from a medieval text, Gísls
þáttur Illugasonar, from the B version of Jóns saga helga:

Og er konungurinn sá Jón prest rétti hann báðar hendur blíðlega mót
honum og mælti: "Gakk hér undir borð hjá oss Jón prestur, hinn kærasti
vin guðs. Og svo vildi eg að þú værir minn hinn besti vin því að eg
veit víst að saman fer guðs vilji og þinn og því vildi eg að saman
færi okkar vilji."

http://www.snerpa.is/net/isl/gisl-th3.htm

Eysteinn: The comparatively modern tone of this makes me read "svo"
a bit differently. In the modern language "svo" is used
very much like "then" in English, meaning almost "subseqently"
or even "additionally": "And then we went to visit granny" =
og svo fórum við í heimsókn til ömmu". I tend to read this
"svo" differently, because the verb in the ancillary clause
already has an object/complement ("minn hinn besti vin").

Here are some examples from blogs and similar sites that illustrate
this usage along with Eysteinn's translation of each. All these
appear towards the end of a blog entry, letter, etc. and introduce
some concluding comment or detail:

Svo vildi ég líka endilega sýna ykkur viðtal
"And then I'd very much like to show you an interview ..."

Svo vildi ég líka bara segja góða ferð við Bibbuna okkar
"And next/finally I'd just like to say "have a nice trip" to
our darling Bibba ..."

Og svo vildi ég bæta við að í dag voru sýndar teikningar
"And then I'd like to add that today some designs were shown ..."

(Maybe this is an extension of the usage in Zoega's 'svá' (6) "so,
then", 'gengu þeir norðr yfir hálsinn ok svá fram á rastarkálf.')

LN