From: Eysteinn Bjornsson
Message: 7700
Date: 2006-12-15
>appreciate
> Many thanks again Eysteinn. Here´s my translation. I would
> any comments on my effort, particularly any underlined text.Indeed. But we must keep in mind that Grýla is not just
>GRÝLUKVÆÐI
>Ogress Poem
>Grýla hét tröllkerling leið og ljót,If you want to translate as literally as possible, this
>(There was) a troll-hag called Grýla, loathesome and ugly
>Í hömrunum bjó hún og horfði yfir sveit,"Sveit" is notoriously difficult to translate. It refers
>In the crag she dwelt and looked over (the) countryside
>Á börnunum valt það, hvað Grýla átti gott,Literally "... how good she had it", i.e. "how well she felt",
>That depended on the children, whether Grýla had good (was lucky),
>og raulaði ófagran sultarsöng.Ófagran = unpretty, i.e. hideous. "She hummed a hideous
>and hummed a song-of-starvation.
>og fálmaði í pokann sinn fingrahröð,Here, "fálmaði í" means "groped at", i.e. "reached for".
>and groped quick-of-fingers (?) into her bag,
>og óð inn í bæina - beina leið.As we are in a "sveit", these "bæir" are farms, not towns.
>and rushed in into the town by the direct route (?).
>Þar tók hún hin óþekku angaskinn,"Angaskinn" just means "small children", "nippers",
>There she took the naughty children's skins (?),
>Og heim til sín aftur svo hélt hún fljótt,Hún hélt heim = she went home, made her way home
>And so back to her home she quickly held (course),
>undir pottinum fuðraði fram á nótt.Fuðraði = (it, i.e. the fire) blazed, "fram á nótt" =
>under the pots (it) ???ed forward at night.
>Um annað, sem gerðist þar, enginn veit,"No one knows what else took place there ..." - but this
>About other (things)? which happened there, no one knows
> en Grýla varð samstundis södd og feit.saddur = full, replete, sated
> but Grýla became at-once bloated and fat.
>og kyssti hann Leppalúða sinn.Heh. He is her husband. Leppur = a patch, piece of cloth;
>and she kissed her Leppalúði (some kind of puppet fish?).
>Svo var það eitt sinn um einhver jól,The force of "svo var það" is approx. "but then it happened
>So was that one time during one Yule,
>Og þau voru öll svo undurgóð,Marvelously well behaved, perhaps?
>And they were all so wonderfully-good (?),
>En við þetta lengi, lengi sat,"But this situation continued for a long, long time".
>But with this long time, sat a long time (?)
>í fjórtán daga hún fékk ei mat.For fourteen days, for the duration of 14 days.
>in fourteen days she received no food.
>Þá varð hún svo mikið veslings hró,"Veslings" just means "poor", "poorly", "sorry", "pitiable".
>Then she became so great a victim? from wasting-away
>að loksins í bólið hún lagðist - og dó.Her bed.
>that finally she lay down in the lair (bed?) - and died.
>En Leppalúði við bólið beið,By her bed - see illustration.
>But Leppalúði waited by the lair (bed),
> og síðan fór hann þá sömu leið.Síðan = "then, next", not "afterwards". As usual.
> and afterwards he went the same way (suffered the same fate).
>Nú íslenzku börnin þess eins ég bið,Note that "börnin" is the object of "bið" - "now
>Now the Icelandic children, I ask that alone,
>að þau láti ekki hjúin lifna við.hjú = hjón = a couple, man and wife
>they they allow not the servants to come-to-life.