The impersonal verb in Old Icelandic

41.
make the verb passive.
Var ~a / ok llul . "" . t a / no /tt••• (15 p. , 1 .340)
Cf. p.5, 1.22 •
./
Sva var ok of leikana ••• (p.16, 1.367)
•
The idiomatic translat ion would be II So it was wi th the games Ii •
/ I /
Sva segir l VQluspa ••• (p.17, 1.409)
• • hart's mea holdum ••• (p.l?, 1.412)
The verb is "es 1l ,
abbreviated as IllS"; ·which is·an older form
of Iter".
· .
af ~( sk(nn b jar tara en af S61U. (p .18, 1.436)
~skviaa:
Vas ~ar at kveldi of komit snim~a ••• (p.140, 1.96)
The English sub ject would be "guests".
The verb "vas komi til
is Singular, agreeing with the impersonal suppressed sub ject,
which takes a third person singular verb and a neuter past
partici~le. (This ~uotation is not type (c) because the past
participle is part of a tense, the perfect tense of' IIkoma il .)
The Icelandic construction with 1/ guests!! as sub ject would -De
/
"boosmenn varu komnir ll ,
vvi th a third person plural auxiliary
verb and masculine plural past participle agreeing with the
third person masculine plural subject.
VQlsunga saga:
• • er myr kt var l / h auglnum. . • • (p.24, 1.105)
"Myrkt" is taken to -De an adjective here. Cf. p.9, 1.144. (Class I).
illellus I slandorum:
/ /
• • at eigi of sa a miali. (p.37, 1.91)
The Engli sh sub ject would be II one II
or 11 a per sontl; or perhaps