SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

166 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
There are four places in particular where the learned
style makes itself felt in Norwegian syntax: (I) in certain
uses of the present participle; (2) in an extended use of
the past participle; (3) in the use of the reflexive form
of the verb in a passive sense; (4) in the use of the
interrogative pronoun as a relative pronoun.
So much has been written on this subject by earlier
linguists, first and foremost by Rektor Marius Nygaard,
that I shall here simply illustrate the learned style by
some individual examples in each group. Many of these
usages still exist in the modern language.
We find attributive usage of the present participle in
framlioande aar, komande vetr. We have an absolute
dative on the pattern of the ablative absolute in the
usual concluding formula of diplomas, godom monnom
hiaverandom. The letters are full of examples of the
present participle used predicatively and in apposition:
"af swreinum yorum sem nu nest ero komandc", "later
han so vars bcenastadar niotande verda", "A ydra
konunghligha tighn troeystande . . . dirfumzst ver yor
drella ... med vaarom brefom moeda eeftir vaarre skyldu
kunnight geerande at ..." If one compares translation
with the original and the letters with the examples and
models in the summa: which form the basis of them, it
can readily be seen that the Norwegian usage of the
present participle is often a direct imitation of the foreign
idiom.
In this connection however we must not overlook
another factor of a stylistic and psychological nature.
First, neighbouring Latin words will often prompt the
use of participles in this foreign way. Bishop Hakon
writes, for example, to his colleague in Hamar: "sem
per seer ... reettazst vera pan iamfnan fyrir aughum
hafuande ok honum fylghiande de quo scriptum est.
miseraciones eius super omnia opera eius." And on
another occasion: "Poraren . . . er med ass seghiande
sik afieeystan vera fyrir pa violenciam er hann hefver