I don't think anybody mentioned that the verb 'þurfa' is
often found as an impersonal. In practice, this means you
can skip the subject, that you can think of as "one":
"the blind (man) (one) needs to lead" = (one) needs to
lead the blind man
Did you look up the verb? This is what Zoëga gives, see
meaning (2):
þurfa (þarf, þurfta, þurft), v. (1) to need, want
(ekki þarft þú at ganga à hús mÃn); with gen., þ.
e-s, or þ. e-s við, to stand in need of (ek þyrfta nú
guðs miskunnar); Gunnarr kvað einskis mundu við þ., G.
said there was no need of anything; (2) IMPERS., þess
þarf (við), it is needed; þess þyrfti, at, it would be
necessary that; with acc. (hversu marga munu vér menn
þ.); ekki var sá leikr, er nökkurr þyrfti við hann at
reyna, it was no use for anybody to strive with him in any
game.
Diego
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com,
Sabin Densmore <sabin@...> wrote:
>
> Hi, all.
>
> I'm working on translating the Old Norwegian rune
poem, and I'm stuck on
> the Ãs verse:
>
> Ãs köllum brú breiða; blindan þarf at leiða.
>
> I've got a passable translation for the first phrase:
"Ice we call a
> broad bridge". The second phrase, though, seems to me
to have to be "the
> blind [man] (blindan) needs (þarf) to (at) lead
(leiða, inf)". I've seen
> it translated as "... to be lead," but I don't know
how what I'm
> assuming as the infinitive form "leiða" gives us "to
be..."
>
> What am I missing?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> - sabin
>