> "Misvitur er Njáll," segir Hallgerður, "þar er hann kann (kunna) til hversvetna ráð." (not sure in what sense kunna is being used here, is a missing verbunderstood?)
> 'Njál is not-always-equally-wise (Z),' says Hallgerð, `there where he knows (the) plan everywhere.'kunna in the sense of "know", I think, with
ráð as the direct object: "seeing as how he knows a suitable course of action
for anything", "what with him knowing what to do about anything." See Zoega
ráð 2 "expedient, means",
kunna ráð til e-s. Compare:
Sámur kvaðst mundu kunna ráð til þess (Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða). Google also turns up plenty of modern examples of
kann ráð (
við e-u,
til e-s): "know what to do (about something)", "know how to go about it."
hversvetna is the genitive of
hvatvetna "anything whatever", rather than
hvervetna =
hvarvetna "anywhere". This example is cited in CV [ http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/png/oi_cleasbyvigfusson/b0297.png ]. And
til has the sense of "for" (Zoega 5).
> aka í skegg sér
"cart [dung] into his beard" (as one would cart dung into a field). Z 2.
> þögnuðu allir
Not a correction -- just curious to see the masculine adjective used of a mixed group, rather than neuter plural, assuming that Hallgerðr is included in this.
> Þú hrópar sonu Njáls og sjálfan hann er þó er mest
vert en slíkt
sem þú hefir áður
af gert við
(göra, Z13) þá
(well-done Grace) og mun
þetta vera þinn bani.
> You slander Njál's sons and he, himself, who is nevertheless
most worthy, but such as you (the
likes of you) have already (before) wronged them and this will be your cause-of-death
(bane).
slíkt = neuter: such (wrong) as you have already/previously done against them, rather than "such as you who..." I understood this clause as absolute: "and (to think of) such crimes as you have already committed against them."
LN