About Villemann og Magnhild

Sun Nov 12 15:41:20 UTC 2006

Dear all,

  I am trying to translate into Gothic a Norwegian folk song called "Villemann og Magnhild", also know as "Harpespelet tvingar nøkken" and "Gudmund og Signeliti". It is a tune that I like very much and I'd like to combine that with my love for Gothic language :) I'm sure that some of the people in the list know this song, and I've checked there has been some discussion in the past concerning an alternate version of this song in message 2352 and others (but concerning a translation from Norwegian into English).

  I'd like to share here with you my translation attempts so you can correct them and give me your opinion. I will be really grateful for your help and views on this.

  In the version that I am working with, the first verse goes:

  Villemann gjekk seg te storan å
  - Hei fagraste lindelauvi alle -
  Der han ville gullharpa slå
  - For de runerne de lyster han å vinne -

  In fact the second and fourth verses are repeated all through the song. The English translation I have would go:

  Villemann went to the river
  - To the most beautiful of all the linden trees -
  This is where he wanted to play the gold harp
  - Thus the runes would promise good luck to him -

  1. About the last sentence, I have even some doubts in the translation from Norwegian (Nynorsk if I'm right) into English, so if anyone speaking Norwegian could verify my translation, that would be wonderful. I confess I don't speak Norwegian and my knowledge about the language is little. I have two versions here: one is that the meaning of the sentence is "then the runes promised him luck" and other "because the runes didn't augur well"... tricky because one translation has the opposite meaning to the other... I think that the first translation is the right one, basing in a German translation that goes "denn die Runen verhießen ihm Glück"... but I haven't even confirmed if the German translation from Norwegian is right! :) (although I think it is from my little knowledge of Norwegian).

  2. Concerning the sentence "Hei fagraste lindelauvi alle", this are my assumptions:
  - I have assumed that "hei" is an interjenction (it can be so in Nynorsk) so our favourite interjection "sái" would fit here.
  - For "fagraste" I have used Go. fagrs in superlative grade, masculine gender (see later), vocative case. As it's an a-stem, it could take both -iz -ist or -oz -ost for the comparative and superlative. From comparison with other pure a-stem roots, I've chosen -ist, but I don't know if there should be other factors to take into account. For the moment, I have here "fagrists".
  - For "lindelauvi" I have found in Tunstall: lindabaums (sm.) "lime-tree, linden" (there's no entry in Wright's Glossary or Streitberg's Dictionary for this). I think that the correct spelling in Go. should be "lindabagms" if I'm not wrong. It is masculine so that makes "fagrists" go in masculine.
  - For "alle" meaning "of all", I have used the Gen.pl.m. of "alls" : "alláize".

  So the sentence would go "Sái fagrists lindabagms alláize".

  3. For the word "golden harp" that appears in some parts of the song, I have come to the Go. translation "gulþaharpa". For this I have based on "gulþ" (Wright: sn. "gold") and "harpa" (Tunstall: sf. "harp"; not found in Wright or Streitberg). From this, according to the word-formation rules and being "gulþ" an a-stem, the final vowel of the first element should remain (see Wright's "Grammar of the Gothic Language", par. 389), thus "gulþaharpa" (also compare with "áiz", sn., "copper" -> "áizsmiþa", "coppersmith").

  4. For the verb "to play", you know already that there is no attested Gothic word for it, being the most similar the verb "swiglon" (wv. 2) with the meaning "to play the pipe". I was thinking here in trying to reconstruct a Gothic word akin to the one "play" comes from: OE "plegian" (Bright's "Old English Dictionary": (w.II) 1. play. 2. contend, fight"), but this proved too hard for me and I was not sure if the meaning of "perform music" was already present in the OE word or was a later added meaning. Then I turned to study the word used in the song, "slå". In Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Icelandic ("slá") one of the common meanings is "to hit", and in a Danish dictionary I even found "to beat", which I think can be related to the style of playing the harp as "beating" or "pinching" the harp strings. Akin to this both in meaning and sound I consider the verb "slahan" (sv.VI) a good substitute.

  As told before, I'd like to read your opinions about this. If you also want to propose a translation, that would be perfect for me... Eager to read your comments, and giving thanks to you on advance,

  Rydwlf

  PS . There's a list of alternate versions and variations of this song in http://www.dokpro.uio.no/ballader/lister/tsbalfa_titler/tittel_314a.html
  (Documentation Project by the Universities of Norway)

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