Indeed. But here's a tricky little passage from Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar,
describing the birth of the eponymous hero:

"Ok eigi miklu síðar getr Gautrekr barn við konu sinni. Þat var sveinbarn
ok var færðr konungi."

What do you make of that?

Regards,
Haukur

> bátr (boat) is, grammatically, a masculine noun. Any pronoun that refers
> to bátr must also be, grammatically, masculine, in all cases, and both
> singular and plural. Hence, hann (nominative masculine singular) is here
> used to refer to ‘it’, ie hann may be translated into English as either
> ‘he’ or ‘it’ depending on whether the noun to which it refers, while
> grammatically masculine, is in the real world masculine or genderless.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Cheers
> Alan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of commander_dagda
> Sent: Monday, 5 January 2009 3:12 PM
> To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [norse_course] Lesson question
>
> I am working on the lessons from hi.is. In lesson 2, part of the
> exercise is to translate:
>
> Óláfr á bát. Hann heitir Ormr.
>
> I am thinking that it is supposed to be:
>
> Olaf owns a boat. It is called Ormr.
>
> But the original uses the pronoun "hann," where I'm thinking it
> should be "þat." Otherwise, wouldn't it be, "he is called Ormr?"
>
> Óláfr á bát. "þat" heitir Ormr.
>
> Nominative case: I you he she it
> Accusative case: me you him her it
>
> Nominative case: ek þú hann hon þat
> Accusative case: mik þik hann hana þat
>
> Thank you!
>
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