SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

168 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
ver yder litla aminning eit stykki klsedess ... bidiande
at per firirlitid ei pessa sending." And used predicatively:
"bidium ver at hann meghi vars bcenastadar
niotande verda"; - "Erom ver pui ... ydra konunghligha
tighn mykilegha bidiande'": - "pui erorn ver
gernsamlegha bidiande at . . .' The following preface
is still sung in our churches: "Med dem vii ogsa vi forene
vare rester og tilbedende sige."
While we are discussing the rhythmic aspect, we ought
to mention the fact that the present participle has a
sound which is very close to that of the Latin gerundive
and the gerund. We need only listen to the sentence
"kan her senghin mader pesshaattar fa ... pat nokorom
godom manne se gejuande". Compare also the following
two examples from the epistolary literature: "scripsimus
nos excusando" and' 'ver skrifuafiom yor neest .
so sem orllof bseidandezst".
Many of these uses of the present participle have lw('!l
banished from normal Norwegian prose of today, from
the religious style too, and indeed even from business
correspondence, which otherwise has generally, and with
good reason, been considered the branch of written
Norwegian which most bears the stamp of Latin and
latinate "officialese". Use of the past participle in
imitation of Latin gained a rather stronger foothold.
Text-books in the art of letter writing are the cause of
such constructions as: "pokkum ver yder mykilegha
firir allan gooduilia oss iamfnnilega teed an", which can he
compared with letters written in Latin: "Pro innumeris
curialitatibus vestris et benevolentiis nobis sepius preostensis
... gratiarum referimus acciones'", and which,
incidentally, compete with the use of a relative clause:
"pokkum ver yor mykla vaalgerd ok hcefuersko er per
tedor oss nu nest", or of a mixed construction such as
"er peer hafir oss iamlegha teedan". Participles of this
kind can hardly be said to be in very common use today.
On the other hand such well-established phrases as