The impersonal verb in Old Icelandic

31 ..
/
Leif's Voyage (F1ateyjarbol~):
... val" honurn vel fagnat. (p.46, 1.184)
Hrafnkels saga:
~/ ./
• • ok er pa lett af a11ri surillanpokunni
ok £rinu. (p .. 62, 1 .. 109)
./
IIEr lett af:' is the verb, a passive form indicating the
state, not the action, of the weather" "Su..rmanpokunni II and
/
"urinu li by their forms are datives, but are also the foci
./
•• hversu per er gefit. " . (p" 72, 1 .. 448)
The literal rendering is H" .. havv to you it is given l1 , which
suggests this mysterious- force controlling man I s behaviour
again" Cf .. p .. 66, 1 .. 244. (C12,ss III); p" 71, 1.412 (Class III) .
Idiomatic English could be "vlhich way you are inclined lt ,
where
"yoU!! can be an active subject, the real doer of the action.
But lIyou ll could. be taken as a passive sub ject which is acted.
on by something or someone else undefinecL
This translation
has the meri t that it can reflect the Icelandic mooel.
Var honuu pr~ngt
/ { -'-+
fra .L bro u ,-,us • • (p.74, 1.499)
The impersonal here stresses the throng and thronging rather
than the people who made it.
.. .. at slitit er piLgiLu. (p.74, 1 .. 513)
Compare ilLaxdoe 10. saga", Chap .. 12: "" .. var sli ti t fundi
'h II (C- -IT (- \ ) Ch 40 ',',,", .;?s. I' t' -'-
ressUtJ1.. .Lass.L ~ D). ape :' JiJnSluan var S l ,.l iJ
pinginu". (Class III (b.) )..
Literally tIle quotation is
II that it is finished wi th the as sem-oly" , i" e" II all proceedings
at the assembly were finished."
It is to be noted that the