In B. Edmondston and Jessie M. Saxby’s, “The Home of a Naturalist”, this appears in the foll. form:
Morian arra doo enya?
Yo!
Skölaug dine cür füren?
Yo gerrasso gerrasso!
The third line is evidently (in both versions) corrupted, and the words transposed: “fø̄r” must be O.N. fœra, and “ᶄø̄rən” O.N. kýrnar, the cows; “en” in “füren” has been borrowed from “ᶄø̄rən”.
Kwārna fārna?
Fārna sikəna droka?
Fārna radna sikəna droka?
Given to me with the foll. translation:
Where have you been?
I have been to get something to drink (a drink).
Have you been up in the roof to get something to drink?
The situation is said to be this:
A man is awakened in the night by the noise of his servant going up to the top of the house, in order to steal some meat hung up there to be smoked.
From Conningsburgh
a few lines are preserved as a kind of address to the cat:
Up (ɔp) aboot de ᶅōra (for: *jōra), gȯit fərə mȯᶇa:
Up around the ear (with the paw)!
(that is) good for the mouth (which means: that promises us a lucky catch of fish).
Nursery-rhymes, Cradle-songs.
An old “gryle” (“bogey”) verse (Fo.):
Skɛkla koməna ri̇̄na tūna
swa‘rta hæsta blæita brūna,
fo‘mtəna (fjo‘mtan) hāla
and fo‘mtəna (fjo‘mtan) bjadnis a kwāra hāla[1].
The foll. translation was given me by an old woman:
A bug-bear [*skekill] has come riding into the home-field (the tun) on a black horse having a white spot (blæita) on its brow (brūna), and fifteen tails, and with fifteen children on each tail.
Cf. the foll. passage in Sturlungasaga: þá er Loptr reið á túnit, kvað hann þetta: Hér ferr grýla í garð ofan ok hefir á sér hala fimmtán (Vigfusson’s edition, I. 246).
- ↑ All the old grammatical endings in this verse have been levelled to -a except in bjadnis, which has got the Eng. plural ending s.
