> "Að heldur tveimur," segir hún, "að eg mundi veita yður öllum."
Alan: > 'For two, more-readily,' she says, `that I would grant (earth)
for you all.'
Grace: > "That rather (than) two," says she, "that I would give for
all of you."
Patricia: > She says "For two - more readily (would rather) grant
earth for you all"
"Rather than two," she says, "I would grant [burial here] to you all."
The dative case can be used beside a comparative instead of 'en' to
mean "than", e.g. 'Sal sér hún standa sólu fegra' "She sees a hall
standing, fairer than the sun" (Völuspá). The first 'að' doesn't have
any equivalent in English here; it's just used sometimes with
comparatives, e.g. in the last line of this cunning riddle:
"Meyjar ek sá
moldu líkar,
váru þeim at beðjum björg,
svartar ok sámar
í sólviðri,
en þess at fegri, er færa of sér."
"Maidens I saw
much like soil
boulders were beds to them,
sable and swarthy
in sunny weather
but lighter the less is seen."
> þeir sáu að Gunnar var kátlegur og með gleðibragði miklu. Hann kvað
vísu og svo hátt að þó mátti heyra gjörla þó það (not sure what
function this is performing) þeir væru firr:
Alan: > They saw that Gunnar was merry and with great joyful-mien. He
recited a verse (did he really have to?) and so loudly that still
(one) might hear fully even-though they were further (away)
I suspect 'það' is a typo for 'að'. The Konrað Gíslason and Eiríkur
Jónsson edition has:
þeir sá, at Gunnarr var kátligr ok með gleðibragði miklu. hann kvað
vísu ok svá hátt, at þó mátti heyra görla, þó at þeir væri firr.
http://dp.rastko.net/projects/projectID438a3f4017f9f/projectID438a3f4017f9f_TEI.txt
> (did he really have to?)
Too merry not to ;-)
Alan: > "Mikið er um fyrirburði slíka (adj weak form?),"
Strong masculine accusative plural.
LN