> “Báða íra?” spyrr Lúkr, “Þeir eru verðir eins skips
> sjálfir.
> "Both Irish?" asks Luke, "They are alike guards of the
> ship themselves (or itself?).
> “Both Irish?” asks Luke, “they are become one with the
> ship itself.
<Verðir> is the masc. nom. plur. of the adjective <verðr>
'worth'. In an 'X is worth Y' construction, Y is in the
genitive, like <eins skips> here. <Sjálfir> is another
masc. nom. plur., referring to the Irish: 'they themselves
are worth a ship'.
> Óbívan, fyr hví skulum vit eigi kaupa skip?
> Obiwan, why will we not buy a ship?
> Why shall we not buy a ship?
Although <skulum> is indicative, I'm inclined to read this
as 'why should we not'; that seems better to fit the sense
and normal English usage.
> Fyr hví sitjum vit hér, ok látum þenna víking svíkja
> okkr?”
> Why do we sit here, and let this Viking cheat us?"
> Why do we sit here, and let this crook deceive us?”
The context pretty much requires 'cheat'. I don't think
that 'crook' has quite the right connotations; 'viking' is
fine, and 'pirate' might work even better, since in this
case it makes sense both literally and metaphorically.
> “It fengið skip keypt, sveinn,” segir Hólmgǫngu-Hani
> hlæjandi, “En hverr stýrði því? Þú?”
> "You are able to buy a ship, boy," says Dueler-Han
> laughing, "And who captains therefore? You?"
> “You are able to buy a ship, boy,” says Duel Han,
> laughing, “But who pilots it? You?”
Rob: <stýra> takes the dative (e.g., <stýra skipi>). <Því>
is the the neut. dat. sing. pronoun, and <stýra því> is
simply 'to steer it', as Grace has.
The <-i> marks <stýrði> as subjunctive, so it's 'But who
would steer it?'
> "Sittu, Lúkr," segir Víga-Óbívan, "Vit gefum þér einn þræl
> hér, en annan í Aldiransveitum eftir vér er komnir þagat.
> "Sit, Luke," says Slayer-Obiwan, "We give you one thrall
> here, and the other in the Aldrian regions after we have
> come thence.
'Thence' is 'from there'; you want 'thither'.
> Ok á ek gullkistil þann þar, es ek gef þér í viðbóti."
> And I have(?) that gold chest there, which I give you in
> addition."
Yes, it's 'have'.
> En lýgirðu, svá skal ek drepa þik ok sveininn."
> But you lie, so shall I kill you and the boy."
There's an understood 'if' in the first clause: 'But if
you're lying'.
> "Skulum vit Tsiubakka til skips ok búa þat í fǫr," segir
> Hólmgǫngu-Hani.
> "Shall we, Chewbacca (and I) prepare the ship for travel,"
> says Dueler-Han.
There's an understood <fara>: <Skulum vit Tsiubakka til
skips fara ok búa þat í fǫr>. Since it's not a question,
modern English word order pretty much requires 'we shall':
'We, Chewbacca and I, will go to [the] ship and prepare it
for travel'.
> Gríðo inn grœni hét maðr, mikill ok máttigr, náfrændi
> Jabba Danakonungs.
> Grido the Green was the name of a man, great and mighty,
> near kinsman to Jabba the Danish king.
> A man was named Grido the green, big and powerful, a close
> kinsman of Jabba, King of the Danes.
I'd go with 'big and strong', 'big and mighty', etc. I also
prefer Grace's 'King of the Danes'; in an Old Norse setting
peoples are more important than nations.
> Hann vas mesti illhreysingr ok ofstopamaðr, lyginn ok
> ójafnaðarfullr at ǫllu.
> He was a savage and an overbearing man, lying and unfair
> to all.
> He was the greatest miscreant and overbearing man, a liar
> and full of injustice in all respects.
'Savage' seems to fit the overall description better than
'miscreant'. Rob: <At ǫllu> 'in all respects, in every way'
can be found in Zoëga s.v. <allr> near the end of (5).
> Við alla menn lynti honum illa, en þó verst við fjándmenn
> Jabba; barði hann á mǫnnum, ef Jabbi fekk eigi þat, es
> hann vildi, ok tók af þeim, es hann mátti, áðr en hann
> seldi þá í hendr Jabba konungi.
> With all men he (had) a bad (lynti = lyndi = temper?),
> although worst with Jabba's enemies; he beat men, if Jabba
> didn't get that, which he wanted, and took from them, if
> he was able, before he delivered them in King Jabba's
> hands.
> With all people ?? to him badly, but even worst with
> Jabba’s enemies, he beat men, if Jabba was not able to
> (do) that which he wished, and took from those who he was
> able before he turned them over into King Jabba’s hands.
Judging by the structure of the clause, <lynti> is a 3rd
sing. past indicative of a weak verb. The past participle
appears adjectivally in <þetta eru reiðigjarnir, illa lyntir
... menn> 'these are violent-tempered and ill-<lyntir> ...
men', and I found a few other examples on the web. After a
good bit of searching I finally found
<
http://bin.arnastofnun.is/leit.php?q=lynda>, which gives
the complete modern conjugation of a verb <lynda> that seems
to fit perfectly: it has <lynti> in the past tense, it's
impersonal with a dative 'subject', and it occurs in the
construction <e-m lyndir við e-n>. The modern dictionary at
Icelandic Online has <lynda við e-n> 'get on well with sby',
which fits nicely with the example <Líkum fuglum lyndir
best> 'Birds of a feather get along best'. And after all
this I finally noticed the entry for <lynda> in CV, which
I'd somehow managed to miss: 'to agree', with the example
<mér lyndir vel (illa) við hann>. The sense may have
changed slightly over time, but the word isn't modern: it
appears in the following passage from 'Víga-Styrs saga ok
Heiðarvíga', which is clearly Jackson's inspiration for this
last bit:
Narfi hét maðr, frændi Gislunga; hann var mesti
illhreysingr ok ofstopamaðr, ramr at afli, lyginn ok
ójafnaðarfullr at öllu; við alla menn lynti honum illa, en
þó verst við frændr sína; barði hann á mönnum, ef hann
fekk eigi þat hann vildi, ok tók af þeim er hann mátti;
var hann í ymsum stöðum um land, ok eirði hvergi.
It appears to me that the first clause is 'He was
bad-tempered with / disagreeable to everyone'. I think that
Rob's right about <ef Jabbi ... vildi>: 'if Jabbi did not
get that which he wanted'. In <es hann mátti> the
relativizer <es> refers what he took: 'and took from them
what he could'.
> Vas hann jafnan í ýmsum stǫðum um mǫrg lǫnd og unði
> hvergi.
> He was always in various towns in many countries and
> nowhere satisfied.
> He was always engaged - now this, now that - over many
> lands and loved nowhere.
I'm pretty sure that Grace is right about <unði>: the sense
pretty much requires it to be the past part. of <unna>,
though I'd have expected the spelling <unnði>. I don't know
whether the missing <n> is a typo or an old form.
> Sem vas fyrr mælt, hafði Gríðó Hólmgǫngu-Hana loginn
> þjóflaun skattfjár fyrir Jabba Danakonung, ok hafði
> konungrinn Gríðó beðinn þess, að hann drepa Hólmgǫngu-Hana
> ok kumpán hans Tsiubakka inn fríska, en fœra aptr til
> Danmerkr skattfé þat, es Jabbi Danakonungr talði sitt
> eigin.
> As was previously told, Grido had told a lie about
> Dueler-Han thievish-concealment of tribute-money before
> Danish King Jabba, and Grido had asked the king that, that
> he slay Dueler-Han and his companion Chewbacca the
> Frisian, but went back to Denmark the tribute, which
> Danish King Jabba considered his own.
> As was previously said, Grido had falsely charged thievish
> tribute money for Jabba King of the Danes and the King,
> Grido, had ordered this, that he kill Duel-Han and his
> companion Chewbacca, the Frisian, and bring back to
> Denmark that tribute money which Jabba, king of the Danes,
> counted as his own.
This construction with <ljúga> has the person falsely
charged (Hólmgǫngu-Hani) in the dative and the offense
(þjóflaun skattfjár) in the accusative: 'Gríðó had falsely
accused Duel-Hani of thievish concealment of tribute money
from Jabbi, king of the Danes'. In the next clause the <r>
in <konungrinn> shows that it's the nominative, not the
accusative: 'and the king had bidden Gríðó this, that he
kill Duel-Hani and his comrade Tsiubakka the Frisian and
bring back to Denmark the tribute money that Jabbi, king of
the Danes, counted as his own'.
Brian