GunnLeif Merl I 5VIII/6 — it ‘the’
En hers jaðarr halda máttit
brezkri jǫrðu né bauga fjǫlð.
Alt fór inn heiðni herr it eystra
eldi ok jarni eylands jaðar.
En jaðarr hers máttit halda brezkri jǫrðu né fjǫlð bauga. Inn heiðni herr fór alt it eystra, jaðar eylands, eldi ok jarni.
And the leader of the army [RULER = Vortigern] could not hold the British land nor the mass of treasures. The heathen army overran the edge of the island, all the east, with fire and iron.
notes
[5-6] alt it eystra ‘all the east’: Lit. ‘all the eastern [edge]’. An adverbial phrase, modifying fór ‘overran’, whose acc. object is jaðar ‘edge’. Bret 1848-9 paraphrases loosely here: over Öens hele östlige Bred ‘over the island’s entire eastern margin’ (similarly Skj B), obscuring the syntax. Cf. Merl I 73/7-8 for adverbial constructions with comp. and sup. adjectives of direction. Merl 2012 appears to presuppose movement towards the east rather than along the eastern side: fuhr … ganz nach Osten bis an den Rand der Insel ‘drove all the way to the east up to the edge of the island’.
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 |