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Egil Sega

“She has been ill for a long time,
she has the exhaustion,
cannot sleep any night and was
as if she had lost reason and shape.”
 
Runes have been scratched therefore, it is a farmer’s son,
not far from here, he has done that,
but afterwards it was
much worse than before.
 
Egil scratched runes and placed them under the cushion of the bed
she rested on.
It was to her as if she had awoken from sleep,
and she said she was well now.
 
Chorus:
No man shall scratch runes
Not being able to use them well;
Many a man is misled
by dark forces.
Ten secret runes have I seen
Scratched on smoothed out fish bone;
For the girl this has caused
sorrow for a long time.
 
Original lyrics

Egil Saga

Click to see the original lyrics (Old Norse)

Please help to translate "Egil Saga"
Comments
xelle-zettsxelle-zetts    Sun, 15/01/2012 - 10:42

The original language is Ancient Icelandic.

dunkelheitdunkelheit    Sun, 15/01/2012 - 10:45

Changed! (although we have only Icelandic..) :)

CalusarulCalusarul    Sun, 15/01/2012 - 12:15

So, is it an old song as well?

sundance93sundance93    Tue, 10/07/2012 - 14:14

I really appreciate this! It's so helpful :D Although, it took me a little extra time to catch the pronunciation because the edhs were replaced with ds and the thorns were replaced with ps. Got it though!
But a note for people who are having some difficulty reading it:
Some of the Ds sound like th as in 'this' 'that' or 'other'
and some of the Ps sound like th as in 'thing' 'thorn' or 'think'
Again, many thanks! And to those who read that, I hope I helped a little :)

weltlichgesinntweltlichgesinnt    Sun, 30/09/2012 - 08:55

Yes, original language is Old Norse (or Old Icelandic), definitely not modern Icelandic, as the song was inspired by Egills saga Skalla-Grímssonar chapter 72 titled "Egill kom til Þorfinns bónda."

I've been studying Old Norse and the Sagas and even modern Icelandic for some time now, and I think the most appropriate lyrics (with proper letters that were missing above) are as follows:

Hefir hún haft langan vanmátt,
ok þat var kröm mikil.
Fékk hún enga nótt svefn
ok var sem hamstoli væri.

Ristnar hafa verið rúnar,
ok er sá einn bóndason
heðan skammt í brott, er þat gerði,
ok er síðan miklu verr en áðr

Egill reist rúnar
ok lagði undir hægindið í hvíluna,
þar er hún hvíldi.
Henni þótti sem hún vaknaði ór svefni
ok sagði, at hún var þá heil

Skalat maðr rúnar rísta,
nema ráða vel kunni,
þat verðr mörgum manni,
es of myrkvan staf villisk;
sák á telgðu tálkni
tíu launstafi ristna,
þat hefr lauka lindi
langs ofrtrega fengit.

I can also say the translation above is adequate from what I've learned. You at least get the "jist" of what is being told in the story, but a couple of lines could be translated differently. For example, "ok þat var kröm mikil" is more like "and it is a strong sickness", as in one that will soon bring death. And "es of myrkvan staf villisk" isn't necessarily "of dark forces" but "of spells with hidden powers". Nonetheless, it's a great translation of one of many beautiful inspirations by Faun. :bigsmile:

TrampGuyTrampGuy    Sun, 30/09/2012 - 17:10

@weltlichgesinnt - there's an option to add an alternate translation for the same language. If you're truly knowledgeable in the Icelandic language and sagas I would also recommend doing so :)