Re: Njal's Saga Ch92 Part 2 Patricia's Translation

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia" <originalpatricia@...>
wrote:

>
> að engi sé þeirra maki
> that (there are) none of their make

"that no one is their equal", "no one is a match for them". 'sé' is
the 3rd person present subjunctive of 'vera' "to be".

> síð er Gunnar að Hlíðarenda lést
> since Gunnar of Hliðarend

"since Gunnar of Hlíðarendi died". See my comments for Alan about 'síð
er'. 'lést' (earlier 'lézt' or even earlier 'lézk') is the 3rd person
preterite singular of 'látast' "to die", this being the middle voice
form of the verb 'láta'.

> og er það líkara að hér dragi öðrum hvorum til bana."
> and it is here (in this case) more like to lead to someone's death

Yes: it will lead to death for one (side) or the other.

> sæmilegum
> honourable [...] (sounds like "seemly")

Well spotted! 'seemly' and the verb 'to seem' are indeed loanwords
from Old Norse ('soemiligr' "honourable" and 'soema' "to honour"
respectively). According to the OED, they're each first recorded in
the early 13th century. Old English did have a cognate verb, 'séman',
but this meant "to settle (a dispute or an agreement)".

> Þráinn svarar: "Hræðsla er það og vil eg það eigi."
> Thrain replies "That sounds fearful - and I want not that"
> [does not pride go before a stumble and a hasty spirit before a fall]

So they say... 'hræðsla' (ON normalised spelling 'hræzla') is a noun,
"fear", but I guess it's fair game to paraphrase it for the sake of
being idiomatic.

> í litklæðum
> light coloured clothing

"in coloured clothing", I think, rather than specifically
light-coloured. Googling 'litklæði' turns up lots of stuff, e.g.
here's an article with references to coloured clothing in the sagas,
including this passage [
http://figurines25et28mm.blog4ever.com/blog/lirarticle-67687-214151.html
]. As you can see, it's a bit of a saga convention for people to dress
up for a killing!

LN