--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "bryn.price" <seppuku05@...> wrote:

>
> Hey guys, just starting learning Old Norse - I've read the First 2
> chapters on the material provided on this website and have just picked
> up 'A New Introduction to Old Norse' and Zoega's Old Icelandic
> dictionary.
>
> So for experimental reasons and trying to grasp the language - I've
> tried playing with a few sentences and hope somebody can comment on
> them.
>
> Óláfr á hest. Hestrinn heitir Sleipnir ok Óðinnr sá hann.

All good so far, except that there's no 'r' on the end of 'Óðinn'. The
root of the word is actually 'Óðin-'. In an earlier stage of the
language, the 'r' ending of the nominative singular would have been
added onto this: *'Óðinr'. But but the time the language came to be
written down in manuscripts, the 'r' had been assimilated to the 'n'
before it, so the actual Old Norse form is 'Óðinn'.

Óðinn sá Óláf. "Odin saw Olaf."
Óláfr sá Óðin. "Olaf saw Odin."

> Sleipnir er
> burrinn með Loki.

"born" is 'borinn'. From the examples in the Orðabók Háskólans text
database, it seems that the dative case alone is used for the parent
in some examples from native poetry:

Sigurðr ek heiti borinn Sigmundi
"Sigurd I am called, born of (i.e. the son of) Sigmund"

Guðrún Gjúka borin
"Gudrun, born of Gjuki (i.e. Gjuki's daughter)"

Jarli bornir
"born of Earl"

In at least one example, the preposition 'frá' "from" is used along
with the dative case:

allir bornir frá Jörmunreki
"all born of Jormunrek"

Prose Christian religious texts (perhaps with Latin originals) use the
preposition 'frá' "from" + the dative case.

borinn frá Maríu meyju
"born of the Virgin Mary"

at engi væri honum betri maðr borinn frá karli og konu
"that there was no better man than him born of man and woman"

So maybe you could have: 'Sleipnir var borinn frá Loka'.

> Óðinnr drepi Óláf ok tekr hestinn.

Óðinn drepr Óláf ok tekr hestinn.

> Nú Óðinnr á hest.

It's normal in Old Norse prose for a finite verb to come after the
first word or phrase in a main clause: Nú á Óðinn hest.

> What I'm taking this should be translated as:
>
> Olaf has a horse. The Horse is called Sleipnir and Odin sees him.
> Sleipnir is the son of Loki. Odin kills Olaf and takes the horse. Odin
> now has a horse.
>
> Thank you

Not bad for a first try!