--- In norse_course@ yahoogroups. com, "AThompson" <athompso@.. .> wrote:
>
> Það kann og vera að mælt sé að synir mínir séu seinir til aðgerða
> That may also be spoken ,see, that my sons are slow in action (slow
to act)

'sé' is the 3rd person subjunctive singular of 'vera' "to be" here,
rather than the 1st person indicative singular of 'sjá'. It's being
used as an auxiliary to form the passive with the past participle 'mælt'.

'að mælt sé' "that [it] *is* said"

The subjunctive is used instead of the indicative 'er' because it's
hypothetical that such a thing may be said. You were right the second
time though:

> mér er von að mælt sé slíkt svo að þér heyrið.
> to me (there) is an expectation that such would-be spoken so that
you hear (it ie from Þraín directly).

> En svo fremi skuluð þér orði á koma er þér ætlið nokkuð að að gera
ef yðvar er illa leitað.
> But so far shall you bring (it) to speech (make it known) when
(that) you intend to do something if (it) is badly proceeded towards
you (if you are challenged).

I think it's better to translate the first 'er' here as "that" (as MM
& HP do), rather than "when". The word 'er' introduces various sorts
of subordinate clause, not all of them temporal. The meaning "when"
just happens to be one common sense (where the all purpose relative
particle 'er' is short for 'þá er').

> Kári kveðst önnur ferð þykja betri en þó læst hann fara mundu við
það er þetta voru ráð Njáls.
> Kári declared-himself (that for him) another journey to seem better
but nevertheless he would go with that when these were Njál's counsels.

Here 'er' is causal: "since, seeing as (how), given that, because". It
introduces a reason or explanation or a relevant circumstance which
casts light on the main clause. MM & HP go with "since": "but agreed
to go since it was part of Njal's plans".

Although 'er' often does mean "when", that temporal sense isn't the
most basic, or original, meaning of the particle from which all these
other senses derive. 'er' is really a sort of all-purpose relative
particle which was used with pronouns and adverbs to relativise them:
'þat, er...' "(that) which"; "sá, er...' "he who"; 'þá, er...' "when
(that)", "(then) when"; 'því, er' "for-the-following- reason,
namely...", i.e. "because". 'er' can be separated from its antecedent,
and can also be used on its own without a supporting antecedent
pronoun of adverb, in which case we have to rely on the context. In
some contexts, 'er' is interchangeable with 'at'.

(1) Þorsteinn hét ágætr maðr, er bjó í Sogni. (er)
"There was famous man called Th. *who* lived in Sogn."

(2) Sá maðr er nefndr Mundilfari, er átti tvau börn. (sá ... er)
"There's a man called Mundilfari *who* had two children."

(3) ok fannst þat á öllu, er hon þóttist vargefin (þat ... er)
"and it was apparent in everything, *that* she considered herself
married below her station"

(4) ok er þat stórr ábyrgðarhluti fyrir Guði, er vér erum kristnir
sjálfir. (þat ... er)
"and it's a grave responsibility before god, *since* we are Christian
men ourselves"

(5) ok enn þreifar hann um fleskit, ok finnr at þar var stungit í
sverði Sigmundar, er myrkt var í hauginum. (er)
"and he he feels the ham again, and finds that Sigmund's sword had
been stuck into it, *it being* dark in the grave-mound" (explaining
why he didn't know it was there till he felt it)

Example three is cited by Zoega and Faarlund; four and five are in
Gordon's glossary. I'm sure CV will have lots more.

> í blárri kápu

Uh oh. That's usually an ominous sign in sagas...

> Þeir lögðu verst til þeirra Njálssona Víga-Hrappur og Grani
Gunnarsson og ollu því mest er þeim var engi sæmd ger eða boðin.
> Towards Njáls-sons they behaved(?) worst Killer-Hrapp, and Grani
Gunnar's-son and for all that (reason) mostly that (when) to them was
no redress made or offered.

Aha, how convienient! Here's yet another example of 'er' not meaning
"when".

"Víga-Hrappur and Grani Gunnarsson were the ones who had worst to say
about Njal's sons, and it was mainly due to them *that* no redress was
made or offered to them (=Njal's sons)."

'ollu' is 3rd person past indicative of 'valda' "to cause", which take
a dative object for what is caused. The subject of 'ollu' is
Víga-Hrappur and Grani Gunnarsson.

'því [...] er'. The dative singular neuter pronoun 'því' is the object
of 'ollu' "[they] caused" and is the antecedent of the relative
particle 'er'. At least, I think that's how to interpret the syntax.
Alternatively you could perhaps read 'því mest' together as "the
most", which wouldn't affect the meaning, and take 'ollu' as governing
the 'er' clause directly. But compare these clearer examples:

(6) Ása olli því er hann drap Hálfdan bróður sinn.
"Asa caused him to kill his brother Halfdan." (More literally: A.
caused it that he killed H. his brother.)

(7) ok þat sama olli því, er nökkur fæð var í milli þeirra
"and that very thing caused there to be a certain distance between
them" (Lit. and that same [thing] caused it that a-certain distance
was between them).

(By the way, does anyone know how to tell Google to take note of the
difference between 'o' and 'ö'? If not, it's a bit hard finding
examples of 'ollu því' in amongs all the 'öllu því'!)

'leggja til' "to furnish, contribute". See about half way down the
left hand column of this page in CV [
http://lexicon. ff.cuni.cz/ png/oi_cleasbyvi gfusson/b0379. png ] under
"metaph.", specifically: 'leggja gott til', 'leggja illt til' "lay in
a good (or bad) word to[wards]", "interfere in a friendly (unfriendly)
manner". You can find it in Zoega half way down the right hand column
of p. 264 in the "prepositions" section of 'leggja'.