At 2:44:09 PM on Friday, April 22, 2011, startrekdataandworf
wrote:

> This saga, þó, seems to use words which are unfamiliar to
> me. The style is different, and somewhat confusing from
> what I have grown accustomed to.

<chuckle> Try _Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar_, Brother Robert's
Old Norse translation/adaptation of Thomas of Britain's
Old French _Tristan_. Brother Robert was strongly
influenced by (or deliberately imitated) the Old French
syntax of the original, and of course the subject matter and
language of courtly epic are rather different from the
subject matter and language of Icelandic family sagas. It's
rather disconcerting at first, to say the least.

> Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra
> Saga of Illuga, Grithar's Fosterson

The nominative of his mother's name is actually <Gríðr>.

> Sá konungr hefir ráðit fyrir Danmörku, er Hringr hét.
> The king has reign over Denmark which is called Hringr.

<Ráðit> is almost certainly the past participle and not the
noun + article: 'That king has reigned over Denmark who is
called Hring'.

> Hann var Skjaldarson, Dagssonar.
> He was the son of Skjald, son of Dag.

The nominative is <Skjöldr>; you can see it in the next
sentence.

> Hún var dóttir Vilhjálms konungs ór Vallandi.
> She was the daughter of King William of Valland.

In this context Valland is probably to be understood as
Normandy, to whatever extent it has a real-world correlate.

> Hann var allra manna fríðastr ok at íþróttum bezt búinn.

> He was of all men fairest and best fitted in
> accomplishments.

<Búinn at e-u> is 'endowed with somthing'; see Zoëga s.v.
<búinn> (2). Thus, he was 'best endowed with skills'.

> Sviði hefir karl nefndr verit.
> Svithi was the name of a man,

<Karl> implies that he was a commoner: 'A peasant was named
Sviði', or 'There was a peasant named Sviði'.

> Hann átti eitt garðshorn, harðla skammt frá
> konungshöllunni.

> he had a cottage, very short from the king's hall.

Fritzner's is the only dictionary in which I've found
<garðshorn>, and he's not sure of the meaning; he suggests
that it, like <garðskrókr>, may be 'corner of an enclosure'.
My guess is that he's to be understood as a poor peasant who
owned just a small cottage and a bit of land in a corner of
the king's garth.

The neuter <skammt> in this context is 'a short way, a short
distance': 'He had a cottage and a little land a very short
distance from the king's hall, in a corner of the garth'.

> Hann átti kerlingu, er hét Hildr.
> He had a wife whose name was Hildr.

Like <karl>, <kerling> suggests commonfolk.

> Hann var mikill vexti ok sterkr at afli, fimr var hann á
> alla leika.

> He was much grown and strong of power, agile was he in all
> play.

<Mikill vexti> is 'tall, great of stature'; we'd say simply
'He was tall and strong'. In this context <leika> is better
translated 'games' or 'sports'.

> Sigurðr konungsson ok Illugi lögðu leika með sér.
> Prince Sigurd and Illugi [lögu??] would play.

The <ö> in <lögðu> is the result of back mutation caused by
the <u>; the underlying vowel is <a>. <Lögðu> is the third
person plural form of the past indicative of <leggja>; the
third singular, <lagði>, shows the underlying vowel. The
sense here is 'to appoint, fix' (Zoëga s.v. <leggja> (5)):
they 'arranged games between themselves'.

> Átti Sigurðr marga leiksveina, ok bar hann langt af þeim,
> hvat sem þeir skyldu reyna, en Illugi vann hann í öllu.

> Sigurd had many playmates and he bore long from them,

<Bera af e-m> is 'to surpass someone'; see Zoëga s.v. <bera>
(11): 'and he far surpassed them'.

> what as they could test[?],

<Hvat sem> is 'whatsoever'; see Zoëga s.v. <hvat> (II.2).
Here <reyna> is better translated 'to try': 'he far
surpassed them whatsoever they tried/attempted', i.e., he
was much better than his playmates in everything that they
tried.

> and Illugi won he in all.

<Illugi> is nominative, so it's the subject of <vann>: 'but
Illugi beat him in everything'. (Zoëga s.v. <vinna> (7).)

> Ok svá kom, at þeir sórust í stallbræðralag, ok skyldi
> hvárr annars hefna, ef þeir væri með vápnum vegnir.

> And thus came, that they swore to each other in
> fellowship, and should either avenge, if they were with
> weapons proceed.

<Koma svá, at> is 'it happened that, it came to pass that':
'It came to pass that they swore brotherhood to each other'.
<Hvárr> here is 'each' and is the subject of <skyldi
hefna>; the genitive <annars> is the person avenged --
<hefna> takes the person avenged in the genitive. <Vegnir>
isn't from <vegna>; it's the masculine nominative plural of
<veginn>, the past participle of <vega> 'to kill': 'each was
to avenge the other, if they were slain with weapons'.

> Var nú allkært þeira á milli.
> Was now beloved they in between.

<Í millum>, taking the genitive, is 'between among'; here it
precedes its object <þeira>. The sentence is an example of
a very common kind of impersonal construction. Literally
it's something like '[It] was now very dear among them', but
it means 'they were now very fond of one another', 'they
were now fast friends', or the like.

> Honum var allt illa gefit, er honum var sjálfrátt.
> To him was all bad given, which to him was voluntary.[?]

This is a rather difficult sentence, but enough digging in
Zoëga turns up some useful bits. S.v. <sjálfráðr> (3) he
has <e-m er e-t sjálfrátt> 'something is within someone's
power, easy for someone', and s.v. <gefa> (6) he has <e-m er
e-t svá gefit> 'someone is so disposed towards something'.
The neuter singular <allt> is being used here as a
substantive, 'everything'. This suggests a translation 'He
was disposed to everything bad that was in his power'.

Something similar is found in Ch. 154 of Njála in the
description of Kormlöð:

Hon var allra kvenna fegrst ok bezt at sér orðin um þat
allt er henni var ósjálfrátt en þat er mál manna at henni
hafi allt verit illa gefit þat er henni var sjálfrátt.

Pálsson & Magnusson translate this as follows:

[S]she was endowed with great beauty and all those
attributes which were outside her own control, but it is
said that in all the characteristics for which she herself
was responsible, she was utterly wicked.

And here's George Dasent's translation:

[S]he was the fairest of all women, and best gifted in
everything that was not in her own power, but it was the
talk of men that she did all things ill over which she had
any power.

In particular,

henni hafi allt verit illa gefit þat er hanni var sjálfrátt

is translated

'in all the characteristics for which she herself was
responsible, she was utterly wicked'

and as

'she did all things ill over which she had any power'.

These seem quite compatible with the translation suggested
above. Moreover, <illa gefit> is literally 'ill-given', and
in Scots there is an adjective <ill-given> (<ill-gien>,
<ill-gevin>, etc.), known at least since the 16th century,
meaning 'addicted to evil ways; ill-disposed, malevolent'.
This may be a parallel development, or it may reflect
Scandinavian influence, but it does seem to be very much in
the same vein.

However, I dug a bit further, and in Ch. 16 of _Króka-Refs
saga_ I found this:

Narfi mælti: 'Þat er satt,' sagði hann, 'at þér er alls
kostar illa gefit.'

Since <alls kostar> is 'quite, in every respect', this is:

Narfi spoke: 'It is true,' he said, 'that you are in all
respects <illa gefit>.'

Narfi continues:

Þú berst á meira en menn ok þykkist mikill fyrir þér ok
gerir mörgum skömm en nú veiztu ekki hversu þú skalt láta
eða þér breyta, svá ertu hræddr. Búztu svá við fyrir því
at ekki mun nú tjá at friðmælazt.

You puff yourself up more than [other?] men and think
yourself strong and bring dishonor on many, but now you
are so afraid that you do not know how you shall behave or
conduct yourself. Prepare yourself, for it will be of no
use now to sue for peace.

Here Narfi doesn't seem to be imputing to his adversary
malevolence or a disposition towards evil ways so much as
contemptible characteristics in general -- 'You're a poor
excuse for a man'. In other words, <illa gefit> seems here
to be closer to 'ill-endowed' than to 'given to ill'. On
that interpretation the present sentence would be something
like 'He was ill-endowed in all qualities over which he had
control', meaning that all of his qualities that were under
his control were bad. If the author considered one's
(moral) behavior to be under one's control but one's
physical abilities to be givens, this interpretation nicely
fits the next sentence, which contrasts his unattractive
behavior with his martial skills and contributions.

Languages being what they are, it's entirely conceivable
that <illa gefit> has both meanings. If that's the case,
I'm inclined to favor the second choice here.

(By the way, the Norwegian translation at
<http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Illugi_Gridfostres_saga>
renders it <Dårlige råd ga han og var svært sjølrådig>,
which, if I'm not mistaken, is 'He gave foolish counsel and
was extremely self-willed'; this seems to me more than a bit
of a stretch.)

> Hann var lyginn ok lymskr at öllu, en þó eigi at síðr var
> hann inn mesti kappi ok varði land konungs fyrir víkingum,
> ok því mat konungr hann mikils.

> He was deceitful and cunning in everything, and although
> as much was he the best champion

CV glosses <eigi at síðr> 'not the less', but I'd render the
combination with <þó> as 'none the less, nevertheless': 'but
he was none the less [i.e., despite his unattractive traits]
the greatest champion'.

> and defend king's land from piracy,

<Varði> is past tense, and <víkingum> is the dative plural
of <víkingr>: 'and defended [the] king's land from pirates'.

> and therefore king had many meals.

Here <mat> is the past tense of <meta> 'to value': 'and thus
[the] king valued him greatly'.

I just noticed that you can find a lot of earlier discussion
in the archives: it appears that Alan, Grace, Patricia, and
possibly others had a go at this back in 2005.

Brian