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Author: Peter
Date: 2005-06-12 20:28:12
Subject: Re: old icelandic
> i translated some passages of the groenlendinga saga for my thesis. i wasn't able to find the word "óskatt" but in an english translation by magnusson and palsson (1965) they tranlsate the entire sentence, i.e. "Freydís fór nú til bús síns því að það hafði staðið meðan óskatt" into "returned to her farm which had in no way suffered during her absence". i´d like to know if it's an interpretation of the meaning of the sentence or if it's a literary translation word by word. thank you for helping me. egle
They have rearranged the sentence to produce a natural sounding English translation, but the meaning is essentially the same. "óskatt" is the neuter singular form of "óskaddr", meaning "unscathed, unharmed, undamaged". In Zoega's dictionary you'll find it under the alternative spelling "úskaddr". Literally:
Freydís
fór nú til bús went now to farm
síns her
því að because*
það hafði staðið it had stood
meðan meanwhile
óskatt undamaged
"F. went [back] to her farm now, as it had remained undamaged in the meantime."
",...it having suffered no harm while she'd been away."
*Or "for, as, since, seeing that". As you may know, "því að" is used quite freely in Old Icelandic. Sometimes it implies causation, but at other times it just adds an explanation or clarification rather than a literal cause. It's a bit like "for" in the old fashioned English of the King James Bible, or even "coz" or "you see" in modern colloquial English. It's possible that here it explains the circumstance that enables her to go back, as much as why she decides to. That's just my thought. You might get more help at one of these Old Norse related discussion groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norse_course/
http://www.mun.ca/mst/ONNarchive/
Peter
| Messages in this thread | Name | College/University | Date |
| old icelandic |
egle |
univ. catania, italy |
2005-06-10 10:52:45 |
| Re: old icelandic |
Peter |
|
2005-06-12 20:28:12 |
| Re: old icelandic |
egle |
un. catania |
2005-06-14 17:36:05 |