Grýlukvæði - notes for Alan (and anyone who is interested)

--- "AThompson" wrote:

>
> Many thanks again Eysteinn. Here´s my translation. I would

appreciate

> any comments on my effort, particularly any underlined text.

>GRÝLUKVÆÐI
>Ogress Poem

Indeed. But we must keep in mind that Grýla is not just
ANY ogress, but THE ogress, the most terrifying, disgusting,
cannibalistic ogress of all. She is also mother of the 13
"jólasveinar" (Yule lads) who visit the human world at Xmas.
They arrive one by one, the first one arriving thirteen days
before Xmas, the last one leaving thirteen days after Xmas,
on January 6, which day is known as "þrettándinn" (the 13th
day).

>Grýla hét tröllkerling leið og ljót,
>(There was) a troll-hag called Grýla, loathesome and ugly

If you want to translate as literally as possible, this
should be:

Grýla was-the-name-of/was-named a troll-hag ...

>Í hömrunum bjó hún og horfði yfir sveit,
>In the crag she dwelt and looked over (the) countryside

"Sveit" is notoriously difficult to translate. It refers
to a "rural area", "a district", i.e. an inhabited area
away from the towns, where people live on farms.

>Á börnunum valt það, hvað Grýla átti gott,
>That depended on the children, whether Grýla had good (was lucky),

Literally "... how good she had it", i.e. "how well she felt",
"how prosperous she was".

>og raulaði ófagran sultarsöng.
>and hummed a song-of-starvation.

Ófagran = unpretty, i.e. hideous. "She hummed a hideous
hunger-song".

>og fálmaði í pokann sinn fingrahröð,
>and groped quick-of-fingers (?) into her bag,

Here, "fálmaði í" means "groped at", i.e. "reached for".
She is not feeling into her bag (which is empty) but
grabbing it hurriedly. And, yes, "fingrahraður" means
"finger-quick", i.e. "nimble".

>og óð inn í bæina - beina leið.
>and rushed in into the town – by the direct route (?).

As we are in a "sveit", these "bæir" are farms, not towns.
"Beina leið" = "by a straight path", i.e. "directly",
"unhesitatingly", implying "without knocking".

>Þar tók hún hin óþekku angaskinn,
>There she took the naughty children's skins (?),

"Angaskinn" just means "small children", "nippers",
"toddlers". An "angi" is a twig, a shoot, anything
small, "-skinn" is an 'endearing' suffix. You would
say to a child: "anginn minn" (my little one), or:
"skinnið mitt" (you poor little thing). There is no
real reference to actual "skin" here - she just takes
the children for her supper, "the naughty little
blighters", perhaps.

>Og heim til sín aftur svo hélt hún fljótt,
>And so back to her home she quickly held (course),

Hún hélt heim = she went home, made her way home

>undir pottinum fuðraði fram á nótt.
>under the pots (it) ???ed forward at night.

Fuðraði = (it, i.e. the fire) blazed, "fram á nótt" =
(far) into the night, and "pottinum" is singular.
"The fire blazed under her pot far into the night".

>Um annað, sem gerðist þar, enginn veit,
>About other (things)? which happened there, no one knows

"No one knows what else took place there ..." - but this
is euphemistic, because of course everyone knows what
Grýla was cooking in her pot ...

> en Grýla varð samstundis södd og feit.
> but Grýla became at-once bloated and fat.

saddur = full, replete, sated

>og kyssti hann Leppalúða sinn.
>and she kissed her Leppalúði (some kind of puppet fish?).

Heh. He is her husband. Leppur = a patch, piece of cloth;
leppar (plural) = rags. Lúði = an ungainly man. So that
Leppalúði would be similar to Ragamuffin. No relation to
the flounder :)

>Svo var það eitt sinn um einhver jól,
>So was that one time during one Yule,

The force of "svo var það" is approx. "but then it happened
that".

>Og þau voru öll svo undurgóð,
>And they were all so wonderfully-good (?),

Marvelously well behaved, perhaps?

>En við þetta lengi, lengi sat,
>But with this long time, sat a long time (?)

"But this situation continued for a long, long time".

>í fjórtán daga hún fékk ei mat.
>in fourteen days she received no food.

For fourteen days, for the duration of 14 days.

>Þá varð hún svo mikið veslings hró,
>Then she became so great a victim? from wasting-away

"Veslings" just means "poor", "poorly", "sorry", "pitiable".
A "hró" is a wretch. She turned into a "pathetic wretch".

>að loksins í bólið hún lagðist - og dó.
>that finally she lay down in the lair (bed?) - and died.

Her bed.

>En Leppalúði við bólið beið,
>But Leppalúði waited by the lair (bed),

By her bed - see illustration.

> og síðan fór hann þá sömu leið.
> and afterwards he went the same way (suffered the same fate).

Síðan = "then, next", not "afterwards". As usual.

>Nú íslenzku börnin þess eins ég bið,
>Now the Icelandic children, I ask that alone,

Note that "börnin" is the object of "bið" - "now
I am asking all Icelandic children for one thing
only ..."

>að þau láti ekki hjúin lifna við.
>they they allow not the servants to come-to-life.

hjú = hjón = a couple, man and wife

"... that they will not let these two come to life
again".

Hope this covers everything! If you (or anyone else)
is interested in more of the same, I'm game. Just let
me know. I could post the "Yule lads" poem, or the
one about the horrible "Yule-cat" ...

Too bad I can't include the tunes these rhymes are
usually sung to ...

Regards,
Eysteinn