Gísla saga Súrssonar 1

Look at Alaric’s Magic Sheet. Demonstrative pronoun. ↩

vera “To be,” copula. Look closely at the conjugation. ↩

upp-haf, a beginning. ↩

á. Scroll down to the entry, Preposition. Triggers the Dative. ↩

saga, A story, legend. ↩

þessi. Look at Alaric. Demonstrative pronoun. ↩

at, Scroll down to Conjunction. ↩

Hákon konungr Aðalsteinsfóstri, King of Norway 935-61. The second element in his hame means the “fosterling” of the English King Æþelstan. According to some sagas, Hákon spent his childhood at the court of the english king. There is no British record of Hákon’s time in Britain and the name occurs only in later Scandinavian sources. ↩

réð, 3rd. sing. past, “ruled.” ↩

fyrir ↩

Norway ↩

ok, and. ↩

vera “To be,” again. ↩

þetta, Alaric again. Demonstrative pronoun. ↩

á ↩

His last days (ofanverðir dagar) were therefore in the years 950-61. According to the calculation of G. Vigfússon (Safu til sögu Ísl. I, 362) Gísli came to Iceland near the year 955; this year also fits very well if one refers the words, ok var þetta, not to the Norwegian events mentioned below but most likely to the emmigration. ↩

Hans. Alaric. Personal Pronoun. ↩

dögum. Day. Notice the weird form of the dative plural. ↩

Þorkell, is not known from from any other source. In S (The “long” version of GS.) he carries the nickname Gullhjálmr. ↩

heita ↩

maðr ↩

hann, Alaric, Personal Pronouns ↩

vera “To be,” again. ↩

kalla. On this conjugation chart, look for “Past Participle.” This is just like English, “…was called.” ↩

skerauki, this nickname apears to be composed of sker (sea rock) and auki(augmentum) ↩

hann, Alaric, Personal Pronoun. ↩

bjó, 3rd. sing. past, búa, “lived.” ↩

í ↩

Súrnadal, today Surnadal, near the Súrnadalsfjǫrðr, a neighboring fjord near Halsfjord in Nordmøe. ↩

ok ↩

hersir, “lord; someone of high rank closely associated with the king.” ↩

at ↩

nafnbót, “ennobling of name,” i.e. title. ↩

eigi ↩

sér, Alaric, Personal Pronoun. Reflexive = “For himself.” ↩

kona ↩

er ↩

sonr ↩

þrír ↩

barna, gen. pl., “of children.” ↩

einn, is more common than fyrstr in enumerations. ↩

annarr ↩

þriði ↩

þeirra, Alaric, Personal Pronoun. ↩

yngstr ↩

vaxa ↩

allr ↩

upp ↩

heima ↩

þar ↩

nefna ↩

búa ↩

firði, dat. sing., fjörðr, a “fjord.” ↩

þeim, Alaric ↩

Fibuli, a fjord in Nordmøe, somewhat farther north than Halsfjord; the name is preserved in the name of the farm Fevelen, (see Sproglig-hist. stud. tilegnede prof. Unger (1896) p. 44). ↩

heita ↩

á ↩

Norðmœri ↩

en ↩

dóttir ↩

Surdal is a small town in the Lund region of Norway. ↩

biðja ↩

hennar, Alaric ↩

gefa ↩

með ↩

mikill ↩

fé, wealth. ↩

þræll, a serf, or slave. ↩

í brott–henni, “he went away with her. That is, he was given to her as property. ↩

fara ↩

með ↩

henni, Alaric. ↩

enn blakki, “the dark,” of the color of the skin. The lexical range also allows for, “the pale,” or “the white,” as a foreboding of death. See the entry in Cleasby-Vigfusson. ↩

berserkr, A berserker; a wild warrior that appears to have had supernatural or ritual powers in combat; a characterization that appears regularly in the medieval sagas. ↩

um ↩

skoraði, 3rd. sing. past, “challenged.” ↩

hólmgǫngu, a duel, sometimes referring to a specific ritual duel that takes place on a small island. ↩

ef ↩

eigi ↩

vildu, 3rd. pl. past, “wished”. ↩

vilja ↩

gera ↩

koma ↩

vetr ↩

til ↩

réð, since he was already married and the oldest of the brothers; the father was no longer able to manage the farm due to his age. ↩

þá, Aleric, Demonstrative Pronoun. ↩

búi ↩

tveir ↩

kostr ↩

hvárr ↩

at hann vill heldr, is actually pleonastic. The construction of this sentence is rather awkward. See note 36. ↩

heldr ↩

berjask, 3rd, pl. pres. mediopassive, “fight,” or do battle. ↩

við ↩

hólmr ↩

liggja ↩

Stokkahólmr, perhaps one of the small islands in the innermost part of Surnadalsfjord. ↩

eða ↩

selja, to give. ↩

hann, Aleric, Personal Pronoun. ↩

hǫnd ↩

kaus, 3rd. sing. past, kjosa, “chose.” Note the adjectival usage of skjótr. See entry 3 in CV. The scribe writes as if he meant segir instead of kaus. ↩

skjótt ↩

berja ↩

en ↩

hvártveggja is ntr. “each of them.” ↩

verða, look at the subjunctive. ↩

at ↩

yrði at skømm, to him through his cowardice, and to her as the berserker’s prize. ↩

skulu ↩

fundr ↩

verða ↩

á þriggja, gen., note that the first four cardinal numbers decline, the lexical form being, þrir. nátta fresti, “A delay of three nights.” ↩

nátta ↩

fresti ↩

nú ↩

líðr ↩

til ↩

stefna ↩

framan. The starting point of the agreed time. ↩

þá ↩

luka ↩

svá ↩

at ↩

fellr, inf. falla, means the same as láta líf; this expression literally means, “to fall down,” or, “to be struck down.” ↩

láta ↩

líf ↩

þykkisk, 3rd. sing. pres. mediopassive, “thought to himself,” or considered it to be. ↩

hafa ↩

vegit, past participle, “won,” through through battle. ↩

segja ↩

ĺáta, “give up,” or, to let go. ↩

gangi fram, “to pass,” or, “to become reality.” ↩

þá ↩

taka ↩

orð ↩

af því, “of this,” particularly, “Because of this.” ↩

gefa ↩

eiga ↩

sverð, a spear is made from this sword later in the saga. The same spear is mentioned as still existing in the 13th century in Sturlunga saga. ↩

Grásiða, “gray blade,” or, “The weapon with the gray blade;” the color of the iron. This is the name of the sword. ↩

skulu ↩

ljái, 3rd. sing. pres. subj., “lend.” ↩

[þér], Alaric. ↩

því at, “because.” ↩

fylgir, 3rd. sing. pres., it “follows” that… ↩

sá, Alaric. Demonstrative Pronoun. ↩

skulu ↩

sigr ↩

hafa ↩

orrostu, fem. sing. gen., “in battle.” ↩

bjóða ↩

þótti–mikit fyrir, “It was difficult for the slave,” or, “he was reluctant,” (to loan the sword.) ↩

bjósk, 3rd. sing. past. mediopassive, “prepared himself. ↩

lúka ↩

unnit, past participle, “had won,” or accomplished. ↩

[ganga]eiga lata–ganga, that someone married the widow of their brother occurs often in the literature. For example, Egil marries the widow of Þórólf in Egils saga, and later in our present saga when Børkr marries Þordis. ↩

fá ↩

fjárhlutr, m. acc. sing., “share of the wealth.” See fé ↩

andask, 3rd. sing. past. mediopassive., “died.” This is an idiomatic mediopassive usage of the verb meaning, “to breathe.” ↩

[drepa](létdrepa, lét, 3rd. sing. past. Used here as a common auxiliary verb, “to let,” or to have something done. “He had” it be done that they were killed. ↩

sem ↩

þá alla–fylgt, these people are not mentioned before this; this would not have been necessary either because berserkers usually had a cohort; in the recension S, twelve are specified. ↩

heimti, “craved.” ↩

laust, adj., with auxiliary láta, he “didn’t want to let it go.” ↩

fær, 3rd. sing. pres., from fá, to receive. at heldr, but rather, or “all the more.” But rather it was not given back to him, or returned to him. ↩

tilrœði, “attack;” or, “try to kill someone,” from ráða til (manns) “to attack someone.” ↩

var þat, “it grew to be” (the wound), “the wound, which he inflicted, came to be severe.” ↩

høggr, 3rd. sing. pres., from hǫggva; “strikes” with his sword. í moti; “against.” “Strikes into…the head.” ↩

brotnaði, 3rd. sing. past., “to be broken.” ↩

lamðiz. “fractured.” ↩

hvártveggi, that is, Gísli and the slave. ↩