2.1. The "gryle" (bogey) verse

[Hnolt]

Norn:

Skεkla koməna rīna tūna
swa'rta hæsta blæita brūna
fo'mtəna (fjo'mtan) hāla
and fo'mtəna (fjo'mtan) bjadnis a kwāra hāla

Old Norse:

Skekill er kominn ríðandi á túnit
á svǫrtum hesti með bletti á brúnni
fimmtán halar
ok fimmtán bǫrn á hverjum hala.

English:

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.

Comments:

Cf. a passage from Sturlungasaga:
þá er Loptr reið á túnit, kvað hann þetta: Hér ferr grýla í garð ofan ok hefir á sér hala fimmtán

JJ: All the old grammatical endings are levelled to -a, except in "bjadnis" which has got the Eng. plural ending -s.

HN: bjadnis < def. barnit + Eng. pl. -s. Most of the old prepositions are dropped. Notice the usage of the English conjunction "and".

http://nornlanguage.x10.mx/index.php?shettxt/21gryle

[Ragnhild]

Hi, greetings from Orkney

I just had a thought.
You said: HN: bjadnis < def. barnit + Eng. pl. -s.

Then I thought: Could it possibly be bǫrn --> assimilation to bǫnn --> segmentation to something like bodn which somehow ends up as "bjadn" --> then add Scots plural -is to get "bjadnis"?

So, in other words, we don't need to assume the definite -it?

[Kråka]

It would be strange to have a definite singular form after fjomtan (fifteen), wouldn't it?

[Hnolt]

[Hnolt]