Re: Njall 142 part 4 - - Grace's translation

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From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Fred and Grace Hatton
Sent: Saturday, 20 June 2009 2:02 AM
To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [norse_course] Njall 142 part 4 - - Grace's translation




Austfirðingadóm sem Mörður kvað að þá er hann lýsti.

in (the) East Firth court as Mord said to them when he proclaimed.

I think þá here is simply part of the conjunction, þá er = when, rather than personal pronoun, which would have been in the dative rather than the accusative.

Sakartökuvottar Marðar gengu þá að dómi og taldi annar vætti fram en báðir
guldu

Witnesses to the handing over of the suit to Mord went then to court and set
forth other testimony and both

Annar (Mdn spelling of annarr) is nominative masculine (hence the subject of the verb telja fram) so can’t be qualifying vætti which is neuter and hence the object. Here annar means one of the two (witnesses) (see annarr, Z1). Annarr...báðir...one of them...(then) both of them... similar to annarr...annarr...one of them...(then) the other of them, as per Z1

öllum þeim er sökinni áttu að fylgja. Seldi hann honum að sækja og að
sættast á og svo

which the case had to pursue. He turned over to him to prosecute and to
come to terms and also

sökinni is fem dat sg with def art suffixed so I don´t think it can be the subject…I think the clause could be translated either ‘those proofs which (they) had to follow/observe in the case (see fylgja, Z5) or ‘those proofs which had to belong to/pertain to the case (see fylgja, Z6). To my amateur mind, the use of the verb eiga (áttu) makes it more likely to be the first of these two possibilities.

Alan