--- "llama_nom" <600cell@...> wrote:

> > > There a goat was accustomed to walk about the home-field
> >
> > Yes, I think that's right: "there a goat was accustomed to walk"

= "a

> > goat was accustomed to walk there" -- with "there" having its full
> > force referring to the location, rather than "there was a

goat..."

> > There's something in the Old Norse Online Course about this, about
> > 'þar' always having that full local sense in Old Norse, never the
> > reduced 'expletive' sense that 'there' can sometimes have in

English,

> > as in "there was once a king."

Correct. But keep in mind that in Icelandic "það" has exactly
the same function as "there", i.e. instead of "there was once
a king" we say "it was once a king" = "það var einu sinni
konungur". You do that as well, don't you, as in "it was a
sunny day" = "the day was sunny". However, it is considered
better usage to say "einu sinni var konungur", but the more
colloquial "það var" is very common, as in the ditty:

Það var einu sinni kerling og hún hét Pálína,
Pálína-na-na Pála-Pála-Pálína,
það eina sem hún átti var saumamaskína,
maskína-na-na sauma-sauma-maskína!

A ditty, by the way, which may be dubiously tracked
all the way back to the Eddic tale of the two giantesses
and the mill called Grótti. But that is another story,
shrouded in the mists of time and forgetfulness ...

E.