Svart Skauf 3VIII/1 — burtu ‘away’
Þá voru burtu börn skaufhala
flestöll farin ór föðurgarði.
Þó voru eftir þeim til fylgdar
þrír yrmlingar og þeira dóttir.
Þá voru flestöll börn skaufhala farin burtu ór föðurgarði. Þó voru þrír yrmlingar og dóttir þeira eftir til fylgdar þeim.
Then almost all of Tassel-tail’s children had gone away from their father’s dwelling. Yet three small vermin and their daughter were left as company for them.
notes
[1] burtu ‘away’: We should have expected the shorter form burt ‘away’ with a verb of motion voru farin ‘had gone’ (ll. 1, 3). The long form (burtu), which is a later form (see Bandle 1956, 435 and Note to st. 17/6), could have been caused by the proximity to the auxiliary voru lit. ‘were’ and the fact that the actual verb of motion, the p. p. farin ‘gone’, does not appear until l. 3 (see also Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, II, 194 and st. 5/3 below).