Thanks Brian

Additional comments and question below.

Alan

From: norse_course@yahoogroups.com [mailto:norse_course@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Brian M. Scott

Sent: Wednesday, 15 February 2012 11:24 PM

To: rob13567

Subject: Re: [norse_course] Laxdaela Saga 44 end + 45 beginning - Rob's Translation

It's 'holy cross': <helgi> is the masc. nom. sing. weak

form; see Gordon, §102. 'He had on [his] head a gilt helm

and at [his] side a red shield, and the holy cross drawn on

[it] with gold'.

It simply didn’t occur to me that it was the a “shortened” form of the adjective <heilagr> as per Gordon §55, so I took it for the gen sg of the feminine noun <helgi> .

> They intended (to go) north to (the) country (typo:

> herað?).

<Héraða> is correct: it's the genitive plural, and <til>

takes the genitive. I think that the intended sense may be

'to the northern districts', though <norður> here is clearly

the adverb, and it's literally 'north to the districts'.

My query was really with the long vowel <é> rather than the ending. I see that Zoega and Gordon list < herað> but C-V lists <hérað>. Why would this be?