Re: Njall 142 beginning - - Grace's translation

At 7:12:42 AM on Tuesday, June 9, 2009, Fred and Grace
Hatton wrote:

> Þeir gerðu hvorirtveggju herkuml á hjálmum sínum.

> They, each side, put (coats of) arms on their helmets.

Just a minor comment: <herkuml> would almost certainly
better be translated 'badges', 'war tokens', or the like,
since these events are supposed to have taken place well
before the development of coats of arms.

> Þórhallur Ásgrímsson mælti: "Farið þér nú faðir minn að
> engu allæstir og gerið nú allt sem réttast.

> Thorhall Asgrim's son spoke, You behave now, my father,
> not at all greatly excited and do everything as correctly
> as possible.

I can't tell from your translation whether you realized that
this is a directive, not a description of his father's
behavior: 'Take it easy, my father, and don't make any
mistakes'.

> Þeir Ásgrímur litu til hans og var andlit hans sem í blóð
> sæi en stórt hagl hraut úr augum honum.

> They Asgrim

I would say 'Ásgrím and his fellows' or something of the
sort.

> looked at him and his face was as if blood were in (it)
> and great hail flew out of his eyes.

<Sæi> is third person (sing. & pl.) past subjunctive of
<sjá>: 'and his face was as if (they) looked into/through
blood', which I take to mean that it was red as blood.

> Nú skulum vér ganga til með Merði Valgarðssyni," sagði
> Ásgrímur, "og láta fyrst sem ekki sé annað því að meiri er
> veiður í Flosa en í mörgum öðrum."

> Now we shall go to Mord Valgard's son,"

<Merði Valgarðssyni> is in the dative, so it must be the
object of <með>, and <ganga til> must be functioning as a
phrasal verb; I suspect that it's more like 'proceed/fare
with M.', meaning something like 'take M.'s part', 'assist
M.'.

> said Asgrim, "and make as if first? as not be another?
> because (there) is bigger game in Flosi than in many
> others."

It seems to be something like 'and behave first as if there
weren't anything else (of concern)'.

> Flosi laut að Eyjólfi og mælti: "Hér fer vænt að og kann
> vera að eigi fari fjarri því sem þú gast til."

> Flosi bowed to Eyjolf and spoke, "Here (it) proceeds
> promisingly and (will?) be able to be not going less as
> you supposed."

'... and it may be that (it) will not proceed far from that
which you supposed', i.e., 'things may go pretty much as you
guessed'.

> Bauð hann lögboði að dómi svo að dómendur heyrðu.

> He bade a demand of the court so that judges heard.

I think that the sense is rather that his call for lots to
be cast was a lawful one (lögboð): 'He made a lawful request
of the court in such a way that the judges heard it'.

Brian