Re: a plea for help

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, LM <lavrans@...> wrote:

>
> From the Havamal, #77
> Deyr fé, deyja frændr,
> deyr sjalfr it sama,
> ek veit einn at aldrei deyr:
> dómr um dau›an hvern.
>
> trans
>
> Cattle die, kindred die,
> thyself shall die the same:
> But I know one thing that never dies,
> The doom of the great dead.
>
> Thus: "domr"?
>
> Or is that too easy?
>
> Larry

Afraid so! Old Norse 'dómr' is etymologically cognate with English
'doom' (they're originally the same word), but in Old Norse, it still
has its older meaning. The speaker in this verse actually says that
people's "opinion, assessment, judgment" regarding "each dead [man]"
is the one thing that he knows will never die. In other words,
reputation doesn't die.

There's no word meaning "great" in this line, and no word meaning
"deed", except that the opinion held about someone is by implication
based on their deeds.

> Deyr fé, deyja frændr, ....... Cattle/wealth dies, kinsmen die,
> deyr sjálfr it sama, ......... oneself dies likewise;
> ek veit einn at aldrei deyr: . I know one [thing] that never dies:
> dómr um dauðan hvern. ........ opinion about each dead [man].

I've no idea what it would even mean, in this context, to say that
doom in the sense of "something ominous or deadly" about everyone
who's died will never perish!