Variant (a): “No, certainly not!" said the crab,Krabə krabə kɔmə lānd
āvə rɩg ri̇̄və
mɔg skäᶅəna ri̇̄və dɩg
nā tråtᶊə krabə
jå‘nᶊa tråtᶊəlȯs or tråƫəlȯs.
Variant (b): From Unst comes:
Crab, crab, come ashore!
Nāgə trȯita, nāgə trȯita —
I’m feared, du “rɩgraivs” me.
The original form was probably:
The crow:“Krabbi, krabbi, kom at landi!”
“Crab, crab, come to the land (ashore)!"
The crab’s answer:
“(Ek) efa(sk), at þú hrygghrífir mik.”
“I am afraid that you will tear my back."
The crow: “Ek skal eigi hrífa þik.”
“I will not tear you."
“Nei, þrátt!” sagði krabbi,
“(Hon er) svá trygðalaus.”
“No, certainly not!" said the crab,
“(she is) so faithless."
The form läᶇdə in the first line implies the dative form “landi”. kome lande must therefore be “kom at landi”.
æve in line 2, is O.N. efa, vb., commonly used in sense of to doubt. It has also been used in sense of to hesitate, or to have suspicion about something (efask, ifask), and in this sense æve must here be explained: to have a suspicion, to be afraid.
mog [mɔg], me. In variant (a) mog has been inserted, through misunderstanding, as the first word of the third line.
In line 3 the English (Scottish) “no” = not has replaced “eigi”. skaᶅəna = skal eg no, I shall not. dok and dig, you.
In line 4 Lowland Scottish na, no, has replaced the older “nei” = no. trott, O.N. þrátt, expresses a strengthening of the negative; see *trott in the Dictionary.
Whilst the first three lines are ordinary dialogue, the words jonsa trottjelos in the fifth line do not appear to be the direct answer of the crab to the crow.
Jonsa may be a corrupted form of “‘jon’ (hon?) er svá”, she is so. “hon”, she, may have changed to jon in Shetlandic in the same way as *hæns, a hen, has changed to jonsa in Foula. But one might almost suppose jon here to be L.Sc. and English dialect yon.
trottjelos (trotsjelos) can hardly be No. trottlaus, unsteady, *þróttlauss, because the root-meaning of this latter word is wanting in perseverance (force), which does not suit in this connection. It might be taken to be a “traustlauss” in the same sense as the O.N. útraustr, unreliable, but “traustlauss” in O.N. has a different
