From: llama_nom
Message: 7652
Date: 2006-12-03
>
> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > From Njal 36 beginning:
> >
> > > "og fer þér illa þar sem eg hefi mælt
> > > `and (it) goes to you badly (reflects badly on you) where I have
> spoken
> >
> > From Njal 36 part 2:
> >
> > > Og væntir mig að þér fari vel en þó munt þú verða mjög að
> þreyttur."
> > > spoken-with-each-other well (been on good terms?) . And (it)
> > gives-hope to me that (it will) go well for you but still you will
> be
> > much tested (sorely tried)
> >
> > In each of these examples, isn't the sense of the expression 'e-m
> ferr
> > vel/illa' rather "one acts/behaves well/badly"? -- the person who
> acts
> > being in the dative. This is how Magnuús Magnússon and Hermann
> > Pálsson take it, and the idiom is defined thus by Zoega
> under 'fara' (10).
>
> My sense for the language (which may be wrong, of course) tells
> me that the meaning of these two is not quite the same. In the
> first instance, I think "fer þér illa" means "it suits you badly,
> it is not well fitting for you, it behoves you ill". Hallgerðr
> is saying that it is not fitting for Kolr to drag his legs in
> this matter, after all the times she has spoken up for him - it
> looks bad for him and makes him less of a man (in Alan's words,
> it "reflects badly on him"). Today, we say "fötin fara þér illa"
> meaning "the clothes do not suit you well, do not look good on you,
> fit you badly". It is a similar sense.
>
> In the second instance "væntir mig að þér fari vel" is more
> straightforward (from the viewpoint of English), i.e. "I expect
> that this will go well for you" (as Alan phrases it) - the sense
> of "suitability" or "fittingness" doesn't enter the picture in
> this instance.
>
> Hope I haven't caused even more confusion.
>
> Regards,
> Eysteinn
>