Forað Lv 3VIII (Ket 21)/2 — in ‘the’
‘Eigi synja ek þess,’ segir in víðförla,
‘at þú líf hafir langt um aðra,
ef þú fund okkarn fyrðum segir;
sveinn alllítill, sé ek þinn hug skjálfa.’
‘Ek synja eigi þess,’ segir in víðförla, ‘at þú hafir líf langt um aðra, ef þú segir fyrðum fund okkarn; alllítill sveinn, ek sé hug þinn skjálfa.’
‘I will not refuse this,’ says the far-travelled one, ‘that you retain your life long beyond others, if you tell men about our meeting; puny youth, I see your courage waver.’
notes
[2] segir in víðförla ‘says the far-travelled one’: In all mss this line consists of the verb form segir ‘he/she says’ and the f. nom. sg. in víðförla ‘the far-travelled one’ which can only refer to the giantess Forað. The line can be regarded either as an inquit indicating the speaker (the position adopted in this edn) or as part of Forað’s reply in direct address. In the latter case Forað would be referring to herself in the 3rd pers. The (self-) description of Forað as ‘the far-travelled one’ is appropriate in the light of the itinerary she details in her Lv 4 (Ket 24). Despite the unanimity of the ms. tradition previous eds (after Edd. Min.) with the exception of Anderson (1990, 439) emend the line with Heusler and Ranisch to a phrase designating Ketill: seggr inn víðförli ‘far-travelled man’.
grammar
Pronouns and determiners: Definite article
The definite article is normally suffixed to nouns, except in some cases where it is used with an adjective. If the noun form ends in a vowel, the 'i' in the article is dropped. If the noun form ends in 'um', the 'm' and 'i' are both dropped. E.g. hesta (acc. pl.) > hestana (acc. pl. definite); hestum (dat. pl.) > hestunum (dat. pl. definite)
| masc. | fem. | neut. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | N A G D | inn inn ins inum | in ina innar inni | it it ins inu |
| pl. | N A G D | inir ina inna inum | inar inar inna inum | in in inna inum |