At 8:57:32 PM on Friday, June 11, 2010, Fred and Grace
Hatton wrote:
> I wasn't sure about a couple of things in this section and
> would welcome any help.
> Grace
> IX. Kapítuli: Frá leyndartali Dúkús Jóðasonar
> Of the secret talks of Duku, son of Yoda
Singular: talk
> Nú er þar til máls at taka, at Víga-Óbívan Kvæggansson kom
> aptr til Jeðifjarða.
> Now it is time to take up the story that Slayer Obiwan
> Kvaeggan's son came back to Jedi Firths.
Z. s.v. <taka> suggests 'Now we must take up the story at
this point, that ...'. One might also say 'Now it is to be
told that ...'.
> En þá er hann vaknaði, heyrði hann raddir margra manna, ok
> einn var þar er talaði með röskri röddu.
> But
Here I think that <en> really is just the narrative
connective 'and'.
> then when he awakened, he heard many men's voices and one
> was there who spoke with a brave (or animated?) voice.
'Brave' and 'vigorous' look like the best choices.
> "Sýnisk þat jafnan," segir sjá maðr, "At ek em fégjarn,
> enda mun svá enn.
> "It always seems," says that man, "that I am avaricious
> and so will (it be) yet.
<Enda> is a little stronger than just 'and', more like 'and
indeed': 'and indeed [it] will still [seem] so'.
> Ok er vant fyrir at sjá, at þú sér eigi griðníðingr eða
> tryggðarofsmaðr, en þú komir þó þínu máli fram.
> And is lacking for to see?, that you be not a trucebreaker
> or a trucebreaker, but you still bring your case forward.
<Vant> is the neuter of <vandr> 'difficult', and <sjá fyrir>
is 'to see to something'. <En> here is 'if', and the last
clause uses the idiom <koma e-u fram> 'to bring about, to
effect' (Z. s.v. <koma>, with preps.). <Mál> looks as if
it's being used in much the same way as in <hafa sitt mál>
'to have one's own way, to have one's will', so I make it:
'And it is difficult to see to it that you be not
trucebreaker or breaker of faith if you effect your will'.
(I chose 'breaker of faith' for <tryggðarofsmaðr> to avoid
an identical repetition; the underlying sense of <trygg->
has to do with being faithful/true.) That is, it will be
hard to do what you want and still manage not to be a
trucebreaker.
> Jeðifjarðamenn eru dauðir, eða farnir til Íslands ok
> komnir eigi aptr.
> Jedi Firth men are dead or gone to Iceland and do not come
> back.
There's no 'do': <komnir>, like <farnir>, is a past
participle. 'The men of the Jedifjords are dead, or [have]
gone to Iceland and not come back.'
> Hverr hefir sét föður minn Jóða fyrir þrimr tøgum árúm?
> Who has seen my father Yoda for thirty years?
The normal English phrase would be 'in thirty years'. (It's
funny: while the question 'Who has seen him in 30 years?'
requires 'in', the implied assertion that no one has seen
him in/for 30 years allows 'for', though 'in' is certainly
more common.)
> Vér munum eiga inn strsta herrinn í Noregi
> We will have the strongest army in Norway
The greatest or perhaps the largest army: <strsta> is the
superlative of <stórr> 'great, large'.
> Vár mun hann gøra smðir til, ok gøra oss ríka hersa."
> He will honour us and make us powerful lords."
Or possibly rich lords (though in practice that may well be
a distinction without a difference).
> Þriði maðr svarar: "Satt er þat sagt, at þú hatar
> áttarmót, ok gleðisk meðan faðir þinn er skóggangsmaðr,
> Dúku Jóðason.
> A third man answers, "It is said truly, that you hate
> (the) relationship and rejoice while your father is an
> outlaw, Duku Yoda's son.
<Áttarmót> is specifically a family relationship: <áttar->
is the combining form of <ætt>. (It can also be 'family
likeness', according to CV.) He seems to be saying that
Dúku hates the family tie to his father.
> En menn segja at þetta er sjálft ættarbragð."
> And people say that this is a family trait (of
> your)self (?)"
Here <en> is definitely 'but'. <Sjálft> is neuter, matching
<þetta> and <ættarbragð>: 'But people say that this is
itself a family trait' (i.e., of Dúku's family).
> En Dúkú þagði.
> And Duku was silent.
And here also I'd make it 'but': he was silent despite the
slur.
> *
> Þá er nátt fell, funnu menn Víga-Óbívan í sænginni, ok
> hnepptu hann í fjötra.
> Then when night fell, people found Slayer Obiwan in the
> bed and forced him into fetters.
<Þá er> in a context like this is simply 'when'.
> Þeir eru farnir of fjarri, þetta er galit."
> They are gone too far, this is mad."
Or in ordinary English, 'have gone'.
> Þess ski ek, at hann lifði enn.
> I ??? that he still lived.
'I wish'; the infinitive is <skja>.
> Hann visti at faðir minn Jóði var spilltr af lesti, þá er
> hann stóð í mót Falfaðni konungi,
> He knew that my father, Yoda, was spoiled with flaws, then
> when he stood against King Palpatine,
Thinking of it as 'then when' may help in explaining the
construction, but here again <þá er> corresponds to simple
English 'when'.
> "Hvat segðirðu mér, segða ek þér at inir gömlu fjarðamenn
> væri þrælar Siðdróttins?"
> "What would you say to me, (if) I told you that the old
> firth men were thralls of the Lord of the Sith?"
There's no definite article here: 'thralls of a Lord of the
Sith'.
> "Nei, þat er ekki mögulegt," segir Víga-Óbívan. "Jóði, ok
> Kvæggan, ok aðrir vissi, væri þat satt."
> "No, that is not possible," says Slayer Obiwan. "Yoda, and
> Kvaeggan, and others knew, were it true."
More idiomatically here, <vissi> is 'would know'.
> En tíu árum síðan, sveik Siðíus hann.
> And ten years later, Sidious betrayed him.
I've a feeling that <tíu árum síðan> is analogous to
English 'ten years since', meaning 'ten years ago'. At
least in the modern language it would, I think, usually be
<fyrir tíu árum síðan>, but I've seen a few examples of the
shorter form.
> Dúkú gekk út, en sagði, at honum þótti mikils erfiðis at
> væni, ef Víga-Óbívan leysti.
> Duku went out, but said, that he thought much trouble to
> be expected if Slayer Obiwan be released.
I think that the sense is a little different: 'but said that
it seemed to him a prospect of great labor/difficulty if
Víga-Óbívan were released', meaning that the difficulty is
going to be in getting V.-Ó. released, not that the release
would cause trouble.
Brian