Re: Bolli's Saga 81 end + 82 part 1 -- Rob's Translation

> Þórólfur réðst nú í sveit með kaupmönnum en Starri ríður
> heim við svo búið.

> Thorolfr got ready now in the district with merchants, and
> Starri rides home with (things) so prepared.

> Þórólfr joined-himself (ráðast, Z6) to the body-of-men
> (sveit, Z1 or ‘company’ Z2) with the chapmen (merchants,
> traders) but (and) Starri rides home things being so.

I think that you mean Z17 for <ráðast>, as in <hann réðst í
flokk með þeim> 'he joined himself to their company'.

Rob: <við svá búit> is an idiom, found in Zoëga s.v.
<búinn>: 'thus, things being so'. It can also be 'under
these circumstances, as matters are/were'.

> Hann hugsar nú efni þeirra Þórólfs og þykir eigi verða
> mjög með öllu fylgt ef Þórólfur skal sleppa.

> He thinks now about their, Thorolf's (and his), matter and
> it doesn't seem to become much helped with everything if
> Thorolfr shall slip away.

See <allr> Z5: <með öllu> 'wholly, quite' (or Alan’s
'completely').

> He now thinks-over (the) affair of them, Þórólfr (and he),
> and (the matter) seems not to become (ie be) greatly
> pursued withal (completely) (ie unsatisfactorily
> concluded) if Þórólfr shall escape.


> Spjót hafði hann í hendi en gyrður sverðinu Fótbít.

> He had a spear in hand and the sword Leg-biter girded.

> He had a spear in hand and girded the-sword Fótbítr
> (Leg-Biter).

According to Baetke s.v. <gyrða>, Rob’s right in reading
<gyrður> as the past participle, used adjectivally of
<hann>: he says that <gyrðr sverði> is 'girded with a
sword', so this would be ‘and girded with the sword Fótbít’.

> Var þá og vindur á kominn.

> There was then also a wind blowing in. (?)
> The wind was then also come on (ie had picked up).

Rob: <Vindr var á kominn> is very much parallel to German
<Das Wind war aufgekommen> ‘The wind had risen’. A lot of
the ON verb + preposition combinations behave a great deal
like German separable verbs.

> Og er Bolli reið að búðardyrunum gekk Þórólfur út í því og
> hafði húðfat í fangi sér.

> And when Bolli rode to the door of the booth, Thorolfr
> went out to that and held a kind of hammock in his arms.

> And when Bolli rode to the-booth-doorway, Þórólf walked
> out in that (same instant?) and had a hammock in his
> grasp.

Yes, <í því> is 'at that moment', equivalent to <í því
bili>; see <í> Z6.

> Bolli bregður Fótbít og leggur í gegnum hann.

> Bolli draws Leg-biter and stabs through him.
> Bolli drew Fótbítr (Leg-Biter) and thrust through him.

Rob’s right: both are present tense.

> Bolli mælti: "Hitt er yður ráðlegast að láta nú vera kyrrt
> því að yður mun ofstýri verða að leggja mig við velli.

> Bolli said: “It is most advisable to behave now to be
> quiet because it will become an unmanageable thing for me
> to put you in ruins.

> Bolli spoke: “This is to you most-advisable to let (it)
> now be (stay) quiet because (it) will become (ie be) an
> unmanageable-thing for you to stab me with ebullition.

<Velli> can’t be from the weak feminine <vella>. Formally
it could be the dat. sing. of neut. <vell> 'gold (poet.)',
since <við> can take dative objects, but that makes no
sense. Thus, it must be the dat. sing. of masc. <völlr> 'a
field', which inflects like <köttr>, Zoëga’s 3rd str. masc.
declension. <Leggja> Z2 has <leggja við velli> 'to
overthrow, slay, kill'; I think that it covers the range
from 'to knock down, to deck' to 'to kill', here presumably
with the strong sense.

> En vera má að eg kvisti einnhvern yðvarn eða alla tvo áður
> eg er felldur."

> But it may be that I cut down some one of you or all of
> two before I am killed.”

> But (And) (it) may be that I lop (cut-strips-off) your one
> or two of (you) all (?) before I am felled (killed)

I’d go with 'cut down' (Z2). I think that <alla> is acc.
plur. masc., so that <alla tvá> can indeed be understood as
'two of all', 'two of the whole lot'; in ordinary English
idiom, ‘one or two of you’.

Brian