Re: Laxdaela Saga 26 Part 2 -- Rob's Translation

On Sun, 2011-02-13 at 11:04 +1100, AThompson wrote:

> > > Synir hans láta verpa haug virðulegan eftir hann.
> > > His sons caused (to) raise a worthy mound for him.
> > > His sons had a splendid mound thrown up in his honour.
> > > His sons caused to raise a mound worthy of him.

> > I'm with Rob and Grace here: <virðulegan> modifies <haug>,
> > so it's 'a splendid/worthy mound', and <eftir hann> is 'to
> > his memory' (or any reasonable paraphrase thereof).

> [Alan] ...which, I think, is precisely what my translation says, except
> that I placed the adjectival phrase "worthy of him (his memory)" after
> the noun to which it refers, just as the original does.

This may be a dialect difference, but to me 'raise a mound worthy of
him' and 'raise a splendid mound in his memory' mean rather different
things: one could do the former for a living person. The mound is
splendid, and it is raised in his memory; those are separate
characteristics.

[...]

> [Alan] Although it may have read this way, I didn't intend my
> translation of "getting (by lot)" to suggest a purely "chance mechanism"
> such as drawing lots, rather that it was his "lot" (destiny, fate) to
> have the support of most men because he was more popular.

Fair enough. I wasn't entirely sure whether you did or not, so I played
safe and assumed what is in my experience the default reading of 'by
lot'.

Brian