Old Norse for Beginners - Lesson Five
by Haukur Þorgeirsson and Óskar Guðlaugsson
Table of Contents
Grammar
1.1 Prepositions
So far we have been managing entirely without prepositions. But prepositions are an important part of ON as well as English, and not using them calls for much unnecessary circumlocution and paraphrasing. ON prepositions, however, largely involve use of the dative case, which is why we have not started using them until now.
Why would prepositions involve the dative case? Our first acquaintance with this case introduced it as a case for “giving & receiving”. But the dative case has many different functions in ON. The reason is that ON’s dative case was (and is, in Icelandic and Faroese) the final result of a fusion of many different cases. In the farthest “known” (projected by comparative linguistics) ancestral language of both ON and English, “Indo-European” (so called because it is the ancestor of most European languages and Persian and North-Indian languages as well), all those different cases served one specific purpose only. Four Indo- European cases served as the basis for the ON dative:
· Locative: The case for marking places or objects where the subject of the sentence is positioned; associated with prepositions meaning ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’, etc.
· Ablative: Marks places or objects whence the subject comes; associated with prepositions meaning ‘from’, ‘out of’, etc.
· Instrumental: Marks objects that are being used in the verb action; e.g. a sentence meaning ‘he weighed the book with a scale’, would mark the word ‘scale’ with the instrumental; English primarily marks the instrumental with the preposition ‘with’, but sometimes with ‘by’, e.g. ‘he came by ship’.
· Dative: Marks the indirect object, usually the receiver of a gift of some kind (whether negative or positive); English usually marks this with ‘to’, e.g. “he gave it to him” or simply by word order, e.g. “he gave the man a chance”, where “the man” would be in dative.
In Indo-European, those cases (supposedly) had separate forms, i.e. separate endings, for each of them. But ON had united all those cases into one form, while retaining all of those different uses for that single case.
It may be evident by now why the dative case is so strongly affiliated with prepositions in ON. Most prepositions have meanings that would be associated with the locative and ablative cases mentioned above.
You might wonder what case category prepositions like ‘into’ and ‘onto’ fit. While locative answers ‘where?’, and ablative answers ‘whence?/where from?’, the ‘into’ case would answer ‘whither?/’where to?’. This case is called “allative” by grammarians, and is the opposite of the ‘ablative’. Even Indo-European did not have a separate form for this case; instead, it was assigned to the accusative case. This is significant, because some ON cases involve accusative, and they are all essentially allative in meaning.
From now on, prepositions are introduced in the Vocabulary section in the following format:
| með + dat | with, by, using |
Or that is, the prepositions are shown with a “+ [case]” following it. It is very important to note the case that a preposition takes, especially because a few ON prepositions may take either accusative or dative, with different meanings according to which case follows. These are cases of prepositions with either locative or allative meanings; compare English “in”, locative, which would take dative in ON, to “into”, allative, which would take accusative. Both are represented by the ON preposition “í”, but the meaning differs according to the case that follows.
1.2 Dative Case: Command
Now that you have learnt how to mark the dative case in all words we have yet introduced, it is time to learn more useful ways of using it. One useful construction involves verbs meaning “tell” or “command”.
Consider this English sentence,
I told him to stop.
As opposed to,
I gave him a watch.
And then consider
I told it to him.
I gave it to him.
I gave it to him.
The sentences both exhibit the same pattern, at close inspection. We already understand that the second sentence, involving giving, has an indirect object, and therefore a dative case. By re-arranging the sentence, the abstract “to” preposition pops up, which is a sure sign of the dative in English. “He” is the indirect object, the receiver of the “gift”, and is marked with the dative.
What we are interested in now, however, is that the first sentence, not obviously involving any “giving”, merely “telling”, behaves in the same way. “He” is also an indirect object, and is marked with dative. What does he receive? “To stop”. Hardly a noun, but verb infinitives are tricky in that they often behave as nouns. Without dwelling on that, we have at least found that this is a significant “new” way of using the dative, although it is in principle the same as the “giving” usage we already know.
Common English verbs that can function in this way are “tell”, “command”, “order”, and others of similar meanings.
The good news is that ON does the exact same thing. In ON, we know the verb “segja”; it means “say”, but it also means “tell”, since ON does not distinguish between those two meanings. Let’s make ON constructions analogous to the ones above:
Ek gef hánum mat.
Is already familiar. Using the command-type construction,
Ek segi hánum at eta.
However, in examining 13th century Icelandic texts, it seems to us that such constructions with “segja” were not altogether usual, though not wrong. The idiomatic usage of the text writers was to use the verb “bjóða, býð” = ‘offer’. Thus, they’d rather say:
Ek býð hánum at eta.
But Nordic men of authority often made “offers” that couldn’t be refused; ‘bjóða’ sometimes means simply ‘order’/’command’.
Evidently, verb infinitives can function like nouns in other dative contexts than commanding, both in English and ON. English says,
I give him to eat. (usually elaborated to, say, “I give him something to eat”)
ON would say,
Ek gef hánum at eta.
1.3 Accusative Case: Qualifying
There still remain some useful ways of employing accusative in ON. One common construction is what we off-hand dub “qualifying”. Again, being closely related to ON, English has an analogous construction:
I call him cowardly.
In ON, both “him” and “cowardly” come in accusative:
Ek kalla hann ragan.
ON often uses the verb “segja” in this way:
Ek segi hann ragan.
Another use is with the verb “vilja”, as English uses “want”:
Ek vil hann dauðan. I want him dead.
1.4 Assimilative Verb Conjugation
Verbs that do not conjugate with a vowel ending, and whose stems have a long vowel (acutes, diphthongs, ae and oe) and end in ‘s’ or ‘n’ never have an -r ending; instead, the -r assimilates to the ‘s’ or ‘n’ and becomes an -s/-n ending:
| blása, blaes to blow | |
|---|---|
| ek | blæs |
| þú | blæss |
| hann | blæss |
| skína, skín to shine | |
|---|---|
| ek | skín |
| þú | skínn |
| hann | skínn |
But verbs that end in vowels are of course not affected:
| reisa, reisi to construct, to raise something/someone (to vertical position) | |
|---|---|
| ek | reisi |
| þú | reisir |
| hann | reisir |
Vocabulary
2.1 Nouns
| skógr | forest |
| vágr | small bay, cove |
| hólmr | isle, small island |
| garðr | palisade/stone wall, city, city-state, garden, yard |
| haugr | mound, dung, pile, grave (see below) |
| eldr | fire |
| vindr | wind |
| vangr | field (not farming), meadow, clear patch of ground |
| brunnr | well |
| heimr | home, homeland, world |
| oddr | point, spike |
| fors | waterfall |
| sandr | sand |
- Norse people made great piles over the graves of important men.
| Ragnarr | |
| Hjálmarr | |
| Oddr | |
| Úlfarr | |
| Noregr | Norway |
| Geirshólmr | “Geir’s Isle” |
| Geirshaugr | “Geir’s Grave” |
| Heiðvangr | “Clear Field” |
| Skógarfors | “Forest’s Falls” |
| Úlfarsheimr | “Úlfar’s Home” |
| Hólmgarðr | “Island City”, a Nordic (Swedish) colony in Russia, now called Novgorod (“gorod” = “garðr”) |
| Austrvegr | “Eastway” (Russia) |
2.2 Conjunctions
| ef | if |
| þar er | where (relative) |
2.3 Adjectives
| djúpr | deep |
| ungr | young |
| ríkr | rich |
| heiðr | clear |
| bjartr | bright, fair (of light complexion and/or blonde hair) |
| sterkr | strong |
| víðr | wide, extensive |
| breiðr | broad |
| feigr | doomed to die, “dead already”, fey |
| spakr | wise |
2.4 Verbs
| sigla, sigli | sail |
| ganga, geng | walk |
| bjóða, býð | offer (sometimes ‘command’, see 1.2) |
| sýna, sýni | show |
| búa, bý | live in, inhabit |
| brenna, brennr | be burning |
| blása, blæs | blow |
| falla, fell | fall |
| skína, skín | shine |
| standa, stend | stand |
| lifa, lifi | live |
2.5 Adverbs
| meðan | while |
| svá | so, such, then (immediately following) |
| heim | homewards |
| vel | well |
| sem | as, like |
2.6 Prepositions
| í + acc | into |
| í + dat | in(side) |
| á + acc | onto |
| á + dat | on (top of) |
| ór + dat | out of |
| með + dat | with, by, using; with, accompanying |
2.7 Pronouns
| fáir | (pl) few (note: “fám” in pl dat, not “fáum”) |
| sumir | (pl) some |
| báðir | (pl) both |
| hvat? | what? |
2.8 Phrases
| “gefa grið” | grant/give mercy, spare, pardon (from death) |
Example: “illr maðr gefr mér eigi grið.” (an evil man gives me no mercy)
Dictionaries will reveal that “grið” is a plural neuter, but do not let that disconcert you. It will not need to be declined to any form not known to you. Just use the phrase.
Exercises
3.1 Translate the phrases into English
- Úlfrinn gengr í skóginn.
- Úlfrinn gengr í skóginum.
- Eldr mjök bjartr brennr í garðinum.
- Ragnarr ferr með víkingum í váginn.
- Þar vegr hann úlfana með geirinum.
- Ragnarr kømr í Eiríksheim með bátinum.
- Með hánum eru fáir menn.
- “Hví eru sumir eigi glaðir?” spyrr Oddr.
- “Fám mönnum, er mik feigan vilja, gef ek grið,” segir Úlfarr jarl.
3.2 Translate the phrases into Old Norse
- A young man sails in the cove.
- He walks out of the boat and into the isle.
- The vikings wait with the earl in a big forest, in the isle.
- The man finds the vikings and the earl in the forest.
- The earl says: “Some men want me dead. Do you want so?”
- “That I do (so I want), earl. Here I stand and fall.”
- “Few men do I spare. If you do not leave (go), I kill you.”
- The vikings say: “Go home, or be doomed.”
3.3 Translate the text into English
Oddr ok Ragnarr heita menn. Oddr er maðr ungr ok bjartr, ok sterkr mjök. Ragnarr er maðr mjök ríkr. Ragnarr á bát góðan ok langan mjök. Þeir eru báðir Norðmenn ok búa í Noregi.
Ragnarr býðr Oddi ok mörgum víkingum at fara í bátinn. Þeir fara nú allir ok sigla. Þeir sigla í stórum vági. Ór bátinum sjá þeir hólm. Þar er sandr ok skógr. “Hólmrinn heitir Geirshólmr,” segir Ragnarr Oddi. “Í skóginum þar er ok Geirshaugr, en þar býr Geirr, illr draugr.” Þeir sjá ok vang mjök víðan ok heiðan. Oddr spyrr, “Hvat heitir þá vangrinn, svá heiðr?” “Hann heitir Heiðvangr. Þar blása vindar sterkir,” svarar Ragnarr hánum. “Þar á ek marga hesta, ok eta þeir vel í vanginum. Í Heiðvangi er ok brunnr mjök djúpr,” segir hann. Oddr sér fors breiðan ok spyrr, “Hvat heitir forsinn, er þar fellr?” Ragnarr svarar hánum, “Forsinn heitir Skógarfors, ok er breiðr mjök.” Ragnarr sýnir Oddi vága, hólma, skóga, sanda, forsa, ok vanga, meðan þeir sigla. Oddr segir, “Þú ert maðr mjök spakr ok mælir vel, Ragnarr, ok kenni ek nú marga vága ok vanga hér í Noregi.”
Brátt koma þeir í Úlfarsheim, þar er Úlfarr jarl býr. Úlfar hatar mjök Ragnarr ok vill hann feigan. Er þeir ganga ór bátinum ok á sandinn, segir hann, “Hér í Úlfarsheimi býr Úlfarr, jarl illr ok ríkr. Hann gefr eigi góðum mönnum grið.”
Þeir ganga nú í Úlfarsheim ok sjá stóran garð. Ragnar maelir, “Garðrinn er mjök stórr. Hann er svá stórr sem Hólmgarðr.” Þá svarar Oddr, “Eigi kenni ek Hólmgarð.” Ragnarr segir hánum, “Þú ert ungr maðr, Oddr, ok eigi spakr. Hólmgarðr er stórr garðr í Austrvegi. Þar eru margir vargar í víðum skógum.”
3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse
When Úlfar sees Ragnar coming with a young man and many vikings, he says, “Many fires burn in me, while Ragnar lives. I grant him no mercy if he does not leave (go) [out of] Úlfarsheim soon.” The men are afraid, who are with him, as they hear him speak so. Úlfar takes a sword and a horse, and leaves.
As they walk, Oddr asks Ragnar much (= many questions, use “mjök”). But Ragnar does not answer him. He says: “Úlfar comes soon. Do not speak, he wants all of us (“oss alla”) dead.” But Oddr and the vikings do not speak. They stand and are afraid. Now Ragnar also sees what they see.
He sees Úlfar on a horse. The wind blows as he speaks: “You are all dead (“feigir”) men. I don’t spare men like you.” As he is coming, they see the fire [that is] burning in him.
Oddr and the vikings flee. They do not want to die in Úlfarsheim. Ragnar sees them flee and shouts: “You are all cowardly! But now I flee too, for Úlfar grants no mercy.” Then he flees with the men. Úlfar does not pursue them. He says: “Some men I do grant mercy – cowardly men.”
Looking at real texts
4.1 A few words from the Heimskringla
Þá varð Óláfr konungr reiðr mjök ok mælti bráðliga: “Hví mun ek vilja eiga þik hundheiðna?”
| varð | became |
| bráðliga | angrily |
| mun | will (conjugated in lesson 8) |
| eiga | own, marry |
| hund-heiðna | dog-heathen, heathen like a dog |
Then king Olaf became very angry and spoke angrily:
“Why will I want to marry you {when you are} heathen like a dog?”
“Why will I want to marry you {when you are} heathen like a dog?”
4.2 A question and an answer from Brennu-Njáls saga
Hann spyrr hvat þeim væri þar gefit.
“Ostr,” segja þær.
“Ostr,” segja þær.
| væri gefit = was given |
He asks what was given there to them.
“Cheese,” they say.
“Cheese,” they say.
4.3 Half a strophe from Helgakviða Hundingsbana:
| Hvárt eru þat svik ein |
| er ek sjá þykkjumk? |
| Eða Ragnarök? |
| Ríða menn dauðir! |
| svik (plural noun) = betrayal, illusion |
| ein = one, only |
| þykkjumk = seem to |
| ríða = ride |
| Ragnarök = “the fate of the gods”, the end of the world |
| Are that only illusions |
| which I seem to see? |
| Or the end of the world? |
| There are dead men riding! |