Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Kapituli fyrsti -- Inn sonnar Þorvalds [Chapter One - Thorvalds sons]


You have before the first chapter of Haakonr saga eiki (The Saga of Haakon-oak), as Hakon oak-tall would likely have been called in ON. Of course, it starts with a bit of family history. This brief chapter has no poetry in it, but it is in Old Icelandic, at least as good as I can get. If you see errors that I should correct, please drop me a line at fridrikrinngamli@gmail.com or fridrikr@thescorre.org, or simply post your correction in a comment. This struggling neophyte in Old Icelandic would appreciate any help he can get.

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Kapituli fyrsti -- Inn sonnar Þorvalds


Þorvaldr hét maðr, sonr Dagar. Þorvaldr var maðr sterkr ok auð-angraðr. Enn er hannvar á unga aldri, lá hann í vikingu ok herjaði. Hann gerðist enn auð-kýfingr ok goðí. Hann fékk Þorarnu Þorarinsdottir.


Þorvaldr átti þrír sonar, hétum Dalr, Boris, ok Hakonr. Dalr var lág-vaxinn ok sterkr. Hann var fyrsti soninn ok kallaðr Dalr bola-kalfr. Inn annar sonr hét Boris. Hann var höfði hærri a Dalr ok mið-digr. Han var kallaðr Boris kol-skeggr. Inn þriðji hét Haakon. Hann var mestr ok sterkast. Hann var kallaðr Haakonr eiki.


Þorvaldstadir at svartárdalr var ból-staðdr Þorvalds ok var auðigr með sauði ok fé ok hesti. Ok sonnar Þorvalds átt enn bjarn-hunn kallað tanngnjóstr þat þeir glímaðum.

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Chapter one -- the sons of Thorvald


Thorvald was the name of a man, the son of Dag. Thorvald was a strong man and easily angered. When he was a young man, he went viking and raided. He became a heaper up of riches and a chieftain. He was married to Thorarna Thorarin´s daughter.


Thorvald had three sons named Dale, Boris, and Haakon. Dale was short, but strong. He was the first son and was called Dale bull-calf. The second son was named Boris. He was a head taller than Dale and stout waisted. He was called Boris black-beard. The third son was named Haakon. He was the tallest and strongest. He was called Haakon-oak.


Thorvaldstead in the Black River valley was Thorvalds home-stead and it was rich with sheep and cattle and horses. Thorvald´s sons also owned a young-bear called “gnaw-tooth” which they wrestled.

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Please leave me comments on this þáttr.  There will be more posted soon.

And of course, visit the Mothership

4 comments:

  1. Þorvaldr hét maðr,

    Shouldn't something (probably Þorvald) be in the accusative here, as the object of the verb?

    ReplyDelete
  2. á Þorarna Þorarinsdottir

    Similarly, shouldn't that be "Þorarnu"?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, Daði.

    Thanks for the comments. I´ll deal with both at once.

    1) I believe that as in the English "Thorvald was a man", the Old Icelandic "Þorvaldr hét mað"r, is the correct construction as both the subject and its complement are in the nominative case.

    2) You are correct on the second which should be "-u" if Þorarna is a weak feminine construction. If it is a strong feminine construction then it stays in its original form in the accusative. I´m going to assume that the weak feminine accusative is correct and make that change.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. as a follow-up: Old Icelandic has its idiosyncrasies, one of which seems to be a colloquial use of "To gain" as "to wed". This then takes the accusative. So it becomes Hann fékk Þorarnu Þorarinsdottir.

    ReplyDelete