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I almost got it right here I thought he was conjecturing upon whether he was cowardly or not to want to kill
my words were
"What I know" says Gunnar "whether is will (for this) be cowardly
(or more cowardly ?) than other men - as it seems to me (there is)
more/better to do for men than to kill them.
I think Gunnar regrets all the killing for he seems to be speccing on
how much more worthy it would have been to have ignored the challenge
I did see him as a man with a conscience but could not see how to best express it
Patricia
PS Discretion can be the better part of valour
-------Original Message-------
Date: 10/04/2007 18:27:00
Subject: [norse_course] Re: Njal 54 end / Alan's Translation
--- In norse_course@ yahoogroups. com, "AThompson" <athompso@.. .> wrote:
>
> I couldn´t make complete sense of Gunnar´s last speech.
>
> Kveðja
> Alan
1. For some reason, "hvat ek veit" means something close to
"I don't know", "I'm not sure", "I wonder". I can't explain why -
maybe LN can?
2. The pair "því"-"sem" here indicates a cause/effect
relationship which can hardly be translated into English
directly.
The sentence means something like:
"Hvað eg veit," segir Gunnar, "hvort eg mun því óvaskari maður en
aðrir menn sem mér þykir meira fyrir en öðrum mönnum að vega menn."
"What I wonder about", says Gunnar, "is whether I am less manly than
other men because I am bothered more than others by killing men."
He actually has a conscience, and isn't sure if that makes
him less of a man, I guess.
Hope that helps a tiny bit,
E.
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