3. Word order
This is not currently part of the peer-reviewed material of the project. Do not cite as a research publication.
a. As a general principle, word order should be:
i. Comprehensible
and reasonably natural in English.
ii. As
close as possible to that of the prose word order, including same treatment of
intercalary clauses.
b. There is a problem (for both the prose word order and the translation) with apo koinou usages of various kinds — e.g. adverbials and adjectives which could qualify more than one element in the helmingr (see >> 3. Towards some editorial principles). It will be best to opt for the most likely arrangement, but to signal in the Notes that other resonances are simultaneously in play.
c. Adjectives not adjacent to the nouns they grammatically qualify are grammatically ambiguous: should they be regarded as appositive or as predicative? E.g:
es siklingr barðisk snarr
vi› Skotlands harra.
‘when the ruler fought, valiant,
against Scotland’s lord’ or
‘when the valiant ruler fought
against Scotland’s lord’.
Good reasons can be brought for both, and these will need to be solved case by case. Ideally, prose order and translation should match, but even this may need to be flexible.