At 4:05:03 AM on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, servupro wrote:

> --- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Hrafn"
> <nikolai_sandbeck@...> wrote:

>> I guess a better translation would be:

>> þar get aðeins verit einn

> Thank you so much!

> It was my understanding that statements of existence of
> the sort 'there is...', 'there are...' place the subject
> or topic first, with no blank pronoun or adverb as in
> Modern English. Thus Margar sagnir eru... means 'There are
> great stories...'. Contrast Þar er nú hǫfuðstaðr...
> 'There is the capital...'; þar always has a specifically
> locative connotation and is not equivalent to 'there' in
> Modern English existential 'there is/are...'
> constructions.

I believe that this is correct.

> Truly impersonal constructions arise in the
> order Verb (+ Adverb) + Object.

The verb needn't be first.

> I couldn't find get, aðeins or verit in of the
> dictionaries I could find, but how does your version
> translate back to English?

<Aðeins> is a later form of <at eins> 'only, but'; <verit>
is the neuter past participle of <vera> 'to be, to exist'.
<Geta> with the past participle of a verb V has the sense
'to be able to V'. But I think that here I'd use <mega>,
which has a flavor of 'permitted' as well as 'possible':
<At eins má einn (vera)>. I've parenthesized <vera> because
I'm pretty sure that it can be omitted: elliptical
constructions with <mega> in which <vera> or <göra> are
understood seem to be fairly common.

Brian