At 8:56:40 AM on Saturday, March 26, 2011,
startrekdataandworf wrote:

> First, how can I determine in which case the name is? For
> instance, when I saw Áki konungi, I thought - because they
> each have the same suffix - that they would go together. I
> was later told that I was not.

> I've been reading þorsteins Saga Víkingssonar and came
> across Gauta Konungs. Konungs in genitive, which indicated
> possession; I am not sure which case Gauta is in. I do not
> wish to make the same mistake with Gauta konungs as I did
> with Áki konungi.

This is basically the same problem as recognizing to which
declension a noun belongs. Most dithematic names (i.e.,
those that are compounds of two roots, like masculine
<Þorsteinn> and <Þorgrímr> and feminine <Þorgerðr>) follow
the strong declension. The masculine names typically end in
<-r> in the nominative (though as usual <-lr>, <-nr>, and
<-sr> are assimilated to <-ll>, <-nn>, and <-ss>,
respectively); in the genitive some have <-s> and some have
<-ar>; in the dative they have <-i>; and in the accusative
they have no ending. (Exception: names with nominative in
<-ir>, like <Þórir>, have <-i> in the accusative -- <Þóri>,
in this case.) There are a few exceptions that end in <-i>
in the nominative and follow the weak declension, with
ending <-a> in the oblique cases; <Sigvaldi> is an example.

Feminine names like <Þorgerðr> with inflectional <-r> in the
nominative have <-ar> in the genitive; these mostly have
<-i> in the dative and accusative (e.g., names in <-gerðr>,
<-gunnr>, <-heiðr>, and <-hildr>; names in <-dís> also go
here). Feminine names ending in another consonant, or in
the elements <-vör>, <-ey>, and <-ný>, have <-ar> in the
genitive and <-u> in the dative. Most of these have <-u> in
the accusative as well; names in <-ey>, <-ný>, and <-yn> are
exceptions, having no ending in the accusative. Feminine
dithematic names ending in <-a>, like <Þorgunna> and
<Þorhalla>, are the feminine counterparts of masculine names
like <Sigvaldi>: they follow the weak declension and have
<-u> in all of the oblique cases.

A great many simplex names (i.e., those containing just one
root) follow the weak declension: if they are masculine,
they have <-i> in the nominative and <-a> in the oblique
cases, and if they are feminine, they have <-a> in the
nominative and <-u> in the oblique cases. I can't offhand
think of any feminine exceptions, but there are quite a few
masculine simplex names that follow the strong declension:
<Steinn>, <Ulfr>, <Grímr>, and <Björn> are some of the more
familiar ones. These follow one or another of the strong
masculine declensions, with either <-s> (<Steins>, <Ulfs>,
<Gríms>) or <-ar> (<Bjarnar>) in the genitive, <-i> in the
dative, and no ending in the accusative.

(I've probably overlooked a possibility or two and
oversimplified a bit; I'm doing this fairly quickly.)

<Áki> is clearly a masculine simplex name; it could be the
dative of a name <Ákr>, in which case it would agree with
<konungi>, or it could be the nominative of a weakly
declined name. When you encounter an unfamiliar masculine
simplex name, it's probably safer to guess that it's weakly
declined (and in this case there is no name <Ákr>, so far as
I know).

<Gauta> as a name could be either a feminine simplex name in
the nominative or a weakly declined masculine simplex name
<Gauti> in one of the oblique cases. Unless the structure
of the sentence indicated that <Gauta> was likely to be the
subject, or the context pointed to <Gauta> as being
feminine, the collocation <Gauta konungs> suggests that
we're dealing with the masculine name <Gauti>. The simplest
possibility is then that it's in agreement with <konungs>
('of king Gauti'), though there are other possibilities
depending on the actual sentence.

> And second, how do I determine which translation to use?
> Some word, I've found, have a number of translations which
> could conceivably fit; however, those translations also
> have vastly different meanings.

I rely largely on context to see what makes the most sense,
but there are other clues. Sometimes a particular sense
occurs only in a fairly specific construction; if that
construction isn't present in the text that you're reading,
you can rule out that possible meaning.

> Old Norse has been a very enjoyable language to study; it
> is a shame that there aren't many chivalric sagas online.
> I only browsed through
> (http://www.dur.ac.uk/medieval.www/sagaconf/matyushina.htm)
> and had developed a strong desire to read them.

Some of the riddarasögur are available online. I've not
looked for all of them, but I have found these:

'Parcevals saga', 'Valvers þáttr', 'Ívents saga', and
'Mírmans saga' are available in an edition by Eugen Kölbing
at <www.archive.org/details/riddarasgurpar00kluoft> and
<http://www.archive.org/details/riddarasgurparc03klgoog>.
At <http://www.septentrionalia.net/etexts/index.php> you can
find PDFs of 'Flóres saga ok Blankiflúr', 'Clári [or Klári]
saga', and 'Íven(t)s saga'. 'Saga af Tristram ok Ísönd' is
available at
<http://www.archive.org/details/sagaaftristramok00norduoft>
and
<http://www.archive.org/details/sagaaftristramo01trisgoog>.
'Karlamagnús saga ok kappa hans' can be found at
<http://www.archive.org/details/karlamagnussagao00ungeuoft?>.
'Erex saga' is available at
<http://books.google.com/books?id=aGIJAAAAQAAJ>. 'Partalopa
saga' can be found at
<http://books.google.com/books?id=GGcJAAAAQAAJ>. 'Sigurðar
saga fóts' with a parallel English translation is at
<www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2010/sigurdarsagafots.pdf>.

Brian