Re: Star Wars 33 end + 34 beginning

> En Víga-Óbívan sǫng þetta galdralag, ok hélt sverðit
> Ljósamæki inn grœna fyr hann, ok mælti sízt, "Valhǫll, ek
> køm."

> When Slayer Obiwan sang this magic song, and held the
> sword Light-sabre the green before him, and said last,
> "Valhalla, I come."

> But Slayer Obiwan sang this magic lay and held the sword,
> Lightsaber the green before him and spoke after,
> “Valhalla, I come.”

<Mælti sízt> (= <mælti síðast>) is actually 'spoke [his]
last': see <orð þau er hann mælti síðast> 'his last words'
in Zoéga s.v. <síð> (3).

> "Hvat?" segir Veiðr, fyr því at hann skynjaði eigi, hvat
> vas komit fyr.

> "What?" says Vader, because he didn't understand, what had
> happened. (I see that modern Icelandic has 'koma fyr' =
> 'happen,' but I don't find this in Z.)

> “What (the)…?” says Vader, because he did not understand
> what had happened.

Z. doesn't have a specific entry for <koma fyrir> 'to
happen', but it's clear from such expressions as <koma svá,
at> 'it so happened that' and <koma at hendi> 'to happen'
that <koma> must have acquired some of the same associations
as English <come> in <come to pass> and <come about>. And
<fyrir> can have the adverbial sense 'to the fore', so <hvat
vas komit fyr> can be thought of as 'what had come to the
fore, what had come forth', which can be understood as 'what
had happened' without too much intellectual gymnastics.

> Ok síðan Lúkr trúði á orðum Víga-Óbívans, ok œskti þess,
> at drepa marga menn á hefnaleit Víga-Óbívans ok fǫður
> síns, rann hann í Falkann, ok Hólmgǫngu-Hani ok Tsíubakka
> inn fríski sigldu því góðu skipi á braut sem bráðast.

> And then Luke trusted Slayer-Obiwan's words, and wished
> that, to slay man men in seeking vengeance for Slayer
> Obiwan and his father, he ran to the Falcon, and Dueler
> Han and Chewbacca the Frisian sailed the good ship away as
> soon as possible.

> And afterwards Luke believed Slayer Obiwan’s words and
> would have wished this to kill more men in pursuit of
> vengeance for Slayer Obiwan and his father, he ran to
> Falcon and Duel Han and Chewbacca the Frisian sailed the
> good ship away as quickly as possible.

Here <síðan> is 'since' in the sense 'seeing that, inasmuch
as' (Z5): 'Since L. believed V-Ó's words'. <Œskti> is
indicative, not subjunctive, so it's just 'and wished to
kill many men'. <Falkann> is 'the Falcon', acc. + definite
article: the noun is <falki>.

> Hólmgǫngu-Hani bað Lúk Anakinsson standa með hann á bǿgi
> Fálkans, því at hann sá fyr at norrǿnir hermenn skyli
> fylgja þeim eptir frágǫngu þeira frá Dauðastjǫrnu.

> Dueler Han asked Luke Anakinson to stand with him on the
> Falcon's bridge (bǿgi = bogi), because he saw ahead that
> Norwegian warrior protectors followed them after their
> departure from the Death Star.

> Duel Han bade Luke Anakinn’s son to stand with him on
> Falcon’s bow, because he saw ahead that Norse warriors
> would follow them after their departure from Death Star.

Here again <Fálkans> includes the definite article. <Bǿgi>
isn't <bogi>: it's <bœgi>, the dative singular of <bógr>
'bow of a ship; shoulder of an animal'. (The first of these
senses is in CV but not in Z.) 'Foresaw' is a clearer
translation of <sá fyr>, and a good etymological match as
well. Grace is right about the effect of <skyli>: it's
'would follow'.

> "Enn vas þat ómǫgulegt þér, at þú fengir hans þar hefnt,"
> segir Leia konungsdóttir.

> "Still you are not that (ómǫgulegt?), that you are able to
> avenge him," says Princess Lea.

> “Still it was impossible for you that you were able to
> avenge him there,” says Princess Leia.

Rob: You'll find <möguligr> 'possible' in Z. The word
corresponds exactly to German <(un)möglich> '(im)possible'.
In fact, <(ó)mǫgulegr> appears to be a borrowing of a Middle
Dutch or Middle Low German cognate of <(un)möglich>; if so,
Jackson probably should have used <máttulegr>.

> En hann lifandi es sitr syrgjandi annarrra dauða, sér eigi
> ǫr þá, es skotin es at honum."

> But he living who sits mourning another dead, sees not the
> arrow, which is shot at him."

> But he who, living, sits mourning other dead, sees not
> those arrows which are shot at him.”

<Ör> 'arrow' is feminine, so Rob's right: <ör þá> is
singular, 'the arrow'. Another indicator is that the verb
is singular: <skotin es>, not <skotnar eru>.

> Ok es hann hafði orð þessi mælt, kom ǫr fljúgandi at
> skipinu hans ok festisk á bǿgi fyrir neðan fǿtrna.

> And when he had spoken this word, an arrow cam flying at
> his ship and stuck fast to (the) bridge below their feet
> (?).

> And when he had spoken these words, arrows came flying at
> his ship and buried themselves in (the) bow below (their)
> feet.

Here again <ǫr> is singular (as is its verb, <kom>). The
<ǿ> in <bǿgi> and <fǿtrna> represents the front umlaut of
long <ó>, just as <ø> represents the front umlaut of short
<o>; the usual classical spelling, as used for instance in
Zoëga, is <œ>, which of course later fell together with <æ>
and is now so written. I'd guess that Jackson chose to use
<ǿ> because it better represents the phonetic and
phonological reality of the language in the viking period.

In <bǿgi> the <-i> that caused the umlaut of <ó> to <ǿ> is
still visible; in <fǿtr> -- I've deleted the definite
article from <fǿtrna> -- it's disappeared, but in
Proto-Germanic the nom./acc. plur. was *bógiz. The
unstressed <-i-> was lost, but only after causing front
umlaut of the main vowel, and the final <-z> developed in
the usual way to <-r>.

> "Þat's svá ek sagða," segir hann, "Statt nú með okkr
> Tsíubakka, því hermenn fylgja boði slíku!"

> "That (re "Þat's" does Old Icelandic have apostrophes?) so
> I said," he says, "Stand (?) now with us, Chewbacca (and
> me) because warriors follow such a message!"

> “It is as I said,” says he, “Stand now with us Chewbacca,
> warriors follow such announcement.”

<Því> is indeed 'because, for'. <Statt> is the imperative
of <standa>; at an older stage of the language it would have
been *stand, but final <d> was devoiced to <t>, making it
*stant, and <nt> was subsequently assimilated to <tt>,
making it <statt>.

Brian