Thank you. I have read through your notes a number of times, trying to absorb as much as I can. Your explanation of "nama" clreaded up a false cognate that definitely needed to go!

Rob

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
>
> At 8:37:40 PM on Saturday, February 6, 2010, rob13567 wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> Some of my comments below duplicate what you've already
> probably gathered from Alan's translation, but I thought
> that it might be helpful to have them in one place.
>
> > kafli - Af Katli flatnef
>
> > Kafli - Concerning Ketil Flat-Nose
>
> To answer Alan's question, this (or 'Of Ketill Flat-nose')
> is correct.
>
> > Eftir þetta hafði Ketill boð ágætt.
> > After that Ketil had an excellent wedding.
>
> <Þetta> is the 'near' demonstrative, 'this'; 'after that'
> would be <eptir þat>. <Boð> isn't the wedding itself, but
> the associated banquet.
>
> > Þá gifti hann Þórunni hyrnu dóttur sína Helga hinum magra,
> > sem fyrr var ritað.
>
> > At that time he married Thorunn Hyrna, daughter of Helgi
> > the Lean, as previously was written.
>
> I think that you're wise to leave <hyrna> untranslated,
> since its interpretation is uncertain. On the face of it
> it's 'point of an axe-head; beak', related to <horn>, and
> one might guess that she didn't inherit Ketill's nose.
> However, the modern idiom <hafa allt á hornum sér> 'grumble
> about everything' suggests a very different possibility, the
> 'grumbler' that Alan's used.
>
> > Eftir það býr Ketill ferð sína úr landi vestur um haf.
>
> > After that Ketil [began?] his journey to western lands
> > over the sea.
>
> 'Prepares for', from <búa>. <Ór landi> is 'from [the]
> land', i.e., 'abroad', and <vestr um haf> is 'west across
> the sea': 'After that K. prepares for his journey abroad
> westwards across the sea'.
>
> [...]
>
> > Björn Ketilsson kom skipi sínu vestur í Breiðafjörð og
> > sigldi inn eftir firðinum og nær hinu syðra landinu þar
> > til er fjörður skarst inn í landið en fjall hátt stóð á
> > nesinu fyrir innan fjörðinn en ey lá skammt frá landinu.
>
> > Ketil's son Bjorn came in his ship to Breidafjord and
> > sailed in beyond the fiord and near the southern coast
> > until where a fiord cuts in the land and a mountain had
> > stood at the headland before the fiord and an island lay
> > near the land.
>
> It's an interesting question whether <kom skipi sínu> is an
> instance of an instrumental dative ('came by means of his
> ship') or an instance of <koma> 'cause/make to come' with
> the dative of the object ('sailed his ship'), though in
> practical terms it makes no difference. You did overlook
> the <vestr> 'west' qualifier. <Eptir> here is 'along'
> (Zoëga s.v. <eptir> (3); in fact you'll find the whole
> phrase <inn eptir firði> 'inwards along the fjord' at Z.
> s.v. <inn>. 'Until where' is a little clumsy as English,
> but it correctly captures the sense of <þar til er> 'to the
> place where'. The <a> in <skarst> shows that this is a past
> tense form. More important, although the basic sense of the
> verb is 'to cut' -- it's cognate with English 'to shear' --
> <skerask> is 'to stretch; to branch' (Z. s.v. <skera> (9)),
> so it's 'where a fjord branched into the coastline'. <Hátt>
> is the neuter nom. sing. of <hár> 'high': <fjall hátt> is 'a
> high mountain'. The mountain is <á nesinu> '*on* the
> headland'. For <fyrir innan> 'inside' see Z. s.v. <fyrir>
> (14).
>
> [...]
>
> > Björn gekk á land upp með nokkura menn og reikaði fram með
> > sjónum.
>
> > Bjorn made landfall with some men and walked ahead with
> > [his] sons.
>
> Not 'sons': that would be <með sonum>. <Sjónum> is from
> <sjór> 'sea'; specifically, it's the dative singular and
> incorporates the postposed definite article. <Með> has here
> the sense 'along' (Z. s.v. <með> (8)): he 'strolled forth
> along the sea', presumably following the shoreline.
>
> > Var þar kammt í milli fjalls og fjöru.
>
> > It was there he came between [in the middle of] a mountain
> > and a fiord.
>
> <Kammt> isn't a possible form of <koma>, but the main
> problem is that it's a typo for <skammt> 'a short distance'
> (neuter sing. of <skammr>). <Fjöru> isn't from <fjörðr>;
> it's the dat. sing. of <fjara> 'foreshore, beach'. (The
> inflectional endings <-u> and <-um> typically mutate <a> of
> a root to <ö>, so when you see <fjöru>, you should check for
> <fjar->.) Context tells you that it's not *a* mountain, but
> rather the one just mentioned: 'there was a short
> distance between the mountain and beach'.
>
> [...]
>
> > Þar fann Björn reknar öndvegissúlur sínar í einni vík.
>
> > Bjorn found there [reknar???] his high seat pillars in a
> > bay.
>
> <Reknar> is fem. acc. plur. of <rekinn>, the past participle
> of <reka> used adjectivally; see
> <http://www.northvegr.org/zoega/h538.php>, Participial
> Adjectives in <-inn>. Here <reka> has its impersonal sense
> 'to be drifted, tossed' (Z. s.v. <reka> (7)).
>
> > Þótti þeim þá á vísað um bústaðinn.
>
> > They thought that pointed out the dwelling place [where to
> > live]
>
> <Þá> here is 'then', 'thereupon', or the like; it can't be a
> demonstrative pronoun, because that would have to be in the
> nominative case. Literally this is something like
> '(It-)seemed to-them then pointed-out regarding
> the-dwelling-place'. (Of course your translation is a
> perfectly good way to express the idea in English, but I
> wasn't sure whether you'd correctly identified all of the
> pieces.)
>
> [...]
>
> > Hana átti Vestar á Eyri son Þórólfs blöðruskalla er nam
> > Eyri.
>
> > Vestar son of Thorolf Bladder-Bald (whose name is Eyri)
> > married her .
>
> <Eyri> is the dative of the place-name <Eyrr>, so that's
> 'Vestarr of Eyrr, son of Þórólfr'. (You got it right in the
> next sentence.) The second element of Þórólfr's byname
> <blöðruskalli> is <skalli> 'a bald head'; the byname is a
> noun, 'bladder-bald-head', not an adjective.
>
> [...]
>
> > Helgi bjólan kom skipi sínu fyrir sunnan land og nam
> > Kjalarnes allt á milli Kollafjarðar og Hvalfjarðar og bjó
> > að Esjubergi til elli.
>
> > HB came by her ship further south of the coast and took
> > possession of [lit. named] everything between K and H and
> > lived at E until her old age.
>
> <Helgi> is a masculine name, so it's 'his ship' (and 'her
> old age', though you don't really need the pronoun here).
> This could also be the <koma> + dative construction, 'sailed
> his ship'. <Fyrir sunnan> is the same construction as
> <fyrir innan> above; it just means 'south of', probably
> indicating that Helgi sailed around the southern coast of
> Iceland to reach Kjalarnes. (On the maps at
> <http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esja_%28S%C3%BCdwestisland%29>,
> the ness on which Esja is situated is Kjalarnes; sailing
> south around Iceland, then north at the end of Reykjanes and
> back to the east would be the natural way to get there, I
> think.)
>
> <Nam> has nothing to do with naming: it's the 3rd person
> sing. active past tense of <nama> 'to take'.
>
> > Helgi hinn magri kom skipi sínu fyrir norðan land og nam
> > Eyjafjörð allan á milli Sigluness og Reynisness og bjó í
> > Kristnesi.
>
> > Helgi the Lean came by her ship further north of the coast
> > and took possession [named] everything between Sigluness
> > and Reynisness and lived in Kristness.
>
> Here again <Helgi> is masculine. The corresponding fem.
> name is <Helga>; what may make this a little confusing is
> that the oblique cases of <Helgi> are also <Helga>. The
> oblique cases of <Helga>, on the other hand, are <Helgu>.
>
> The nominatives of the place-names are <Siglunes>,
> <Reynisnes>, and <Kristnes>, with single <s>, unless you
> were translating the <nes> element into English.
>
> > Frá þeim Helga og Þórunni er komið Eyfirðingakyn.
> > From them Helgi the Lean and Thorunn Hyrna ?? come
> > Eyfirding.
>
> The subject is <Eyfirðingakyn> 'kin of the <Eyfirðingar>',
> where <Eyfirðingar> is 'inhabitants of Eyjafjörðr'; <er
> komit> is literally 'is come', in modern English 'has come'.
> 'From Helgi and Þórunn are descended the Eyjafjörðr
> kindred.'
>
> [...]
>
> > Ketill flatnefur kom skipi sínu við Skotland og fékk góðar
> > viðtökur af tignum mönnum, því að hann var frægur maður og
> > stórættaður, og buðu honum þann ráðakost þar sem hann
> > vildi hafa.
>
> > Ketil Flat-Nose came in his ship to Scotland and got good
> > receptions of honor from the people, so that he was ?? man
> > and highborn, and [he lived the way of life that he wanted
> > to have???]
>
> He got good receptions 'from high-born men': <tignum mönnum>
> is the dative of <tignar menn> 'high-born men, noble men',
> and <tignar> is the masc. nom. plur. of <tiginn>. <Því at>
> is 'for, because'. <Frægr> is 'famous'. Sadly, you won't
> find <buðu> in Zoëga's list of irregular forms; it's from
> <bjóða> 'to offer', whose complete conjugation can be found
> at <http://www.northvegr.org/zoega/h542.php> (Class 3). As
> a general principle, when a plural past tense of a strong
> verb has <u> as its root vowel, you can expect the
> infinitive to have either <jó> or <e>. That last clause is
> 'and offered him the way of life that he wanted to have'.
>
> > Ketill staðfestist þar og annað frændlið hans nema
> > Þorsteinn dótturson hans.
>
> > Ketil made his home there and other of his kinsmen [???]
>
> <Nema> is 'except, but': 'and his other family except
> Þorsteinn, his daughter's son'.
>
> > Hann lagðist þegar í hernað og herjaði víða um Skotland og
> > fékk jafnan sigur.
>
> > He set himself at once to harrying and harried extensively
> > around Scotland and got constant victory [was consistently
> > victorious].
>
> <Jafnan> is an adverb, 'constantly, always', not an
> adjective: 'and always got victory'.
>
> > Síðan gerði hann sætt við Skota og eignaðist hálft
> > Skotland og varð konungur yfir.
>
> > Then he waylaid the Scots and became the owner of half of
> > Scotland and was king over [it].
>
> <Sætt> is 'reconciliation, agreement, settlement':
> 'Afterwards he made an agreement with [the] Scots'.
>
> [...]
>
> > Skotar héldu eigi lengi sættina því að þeir sviku hann í
> > tryggð.
>
> > Scots didn't hold the peace any longer so that [???]
>
> '[The] Scots did not long keep the agreement, for they
> betrayed (svíkja) him in time of truce.' (For <svíkja í
> tryggð> see Cleasby & Vigfússon s.v. <tryggð>.)
>
> > Svo segir Ari Þorgilsson hinn fróði um líflát Þorsteins að
> > hann félli á Katanesi.
>
> > So says Ari Thorgilsson the Learned about Thorstein's
> > death when [?] he fell at Caithness.
>
> Not 'when', but 'that': <segja at> is 'to say that'.
>
> [...]
>
> > Og er hún frá það að Þorsteinn var látinn en faðir hennar
> > andaður þá þóttist hún þar enga uppreist fá mundu.
>
> > And when [????}
>
> Did <frá> cause trouble? Here it's not the preposition, but
> rather the past tense of <fregna> 'to hear of'. Literally
> it's 'And when she heard of that, that Þ. was dead and her
> father dead, then she thought that she would receive no
> reparation there'. More colloquially, 'And when she heard
> that Þ. and her father were dead, she thought that she would
> receive no reparation for that'.
>
> > Eftir það lætur hún gera knörr í skógi á laun.
> > After that [???] ship in forest in secret.
>
> This is the <láta> + infinitive construction, 'to cause to
> X'. It's also impersonal: 'After this [not 'that'] she has
> a knorr built (<gera>, <gøra> in Zoëga) in the wood in
> secret'. (A knorr was a relatively wide-beamed ship, often
> a merchant ship.)
>
> > Og er skipið var algert þá bjó hún skipið og hafði auð
> > fjár.
>
> > And when the ship was complete she lived [???] and had
> > wealth [???]
>
> Here again we have <bjó> from <búa> 'to prepare, to make
> ready'. <Auð> is the accusative of <auðr> 'riches, wealth',
> and <fjár> is the genitive of <fé> 'cattle, esp. sheep;
> property, money'; <auðr fjár> is literally '(a) wealth of
> money', but Zoëga s.v. <auðr> suggests simply 'great
> wealth'. 'And when the ship was complete, she made the ship
> ready and had great wealth.'
>
> > Hún hafði í brott með sér allt frændlið sitt það er á lífi
> > var og þykjast menn varla dæmi til vita að einn kvenmaður
> > hafi komist í brott úr þvílíkum ófriði með jafnmiklu fé og
> > föruneyti.
>
> > [???]
>
> 'She had abroad with her her entire family, that which was
> alive, and people thought themselves hardly to know of an
> instance (Zoëga s.v. <dœmi> (7)) in which (literally 'that')
> one woman had escaped abroad from such hostilities with so
> much property and company (or 'retinue').'
>
> > Má af því marka að hún var mikið afbragð annarra kvenna.
>
> > [???] she was a very paragon among women.
>
> <Má>, from <mega>, is in the list of irregular verbal forms
> in Zoëga; <marka> here is 'to observe, to infer' (Z. s.v.
> <marka> (7)). The construction is <mega> + infinitive 'to
> be able to X', and in this case it's impersonal: 'From this
> it can be inferred (or 'one can infer') that she was ...'.
>
> Brian
>