# Icelandic: Days of the week



## Alxmrphi

In my book there is a rhyme that is meant to help me remember the days of the week, here it is:

Sunnudagur til sigurs,
mánudagur til mæðu,
Þriðjudagur til Þrautar,
miðvikudagur til moldar,
fimmtudagur til frama,
föstudagur til fjár,
laugardagur til lukku.

I understand the days, and the other words are translated as victory, distress/trouble, hardship/trial, earth/soil, career, money, luck.

I'm not sure how to translate "til" and I know how many things an Icelandic preposition can mean in English, I want to understand what it means for an Icelandic (the whole rhyme), and maybe then we can find an appropriate way to put it into English, can anyone help?

Tankks


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## jonquiliser

I know nearly nothing about Icelandic, but could the preposition be "to" or "for"? So the rhyme would be something like "mondays are for..." etc?


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## Whodunit

Alex_Murphy said:


> I'm not sure how to translate "til" and I know how many things an Icelandic preposition can mean in English, I want to understand what it means for an Icelandic (the whole rhyme), and maybe then we can find an appropriate way to put it into English, can anyone help?
> 
> Tankks


 
Hm, I have googled the single lines, and they all have a meaning (but all sites are in Icelandic and I don't feel like translating them), however they don't appear together on the Internet. So, let me try to translate what I understand:

Sunnudagur til sigurs, _On Sunday to the vitory_
mánudagur til mæðu, _On Monday into troubles_
Þriðjudagur til Þrautar, _On Tuesday to the bitter end_
miðvikudagur til moldar, _On Wednesday to the funeral_
fimmtudagur til frama, _On Thursday advancing_
föstudagur til fjár, _On Friday getting (?) money_
laugardagur til lukk _On Saturday (finally) achieving luck_

Let's see what the native speakers say.


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## Óðinn Þórvaldsson

Sunnudagur til sigurs, Sunday to victory
mánudagur til mæðu, Monday to misery
Þriðjudagur til Þrautar, Tuesday to conflict
miðvikudagur til moldar, Wednesday to dust
fimmtudagur til frama, Thursday to fame
föstudagur til fjár, Friday to equity
laugardagur til lukku. Saturday to groom


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## Silver_Biscuit

This thread is from six years ago, so I doubt Alex is still having trouble with _til_. But 'to groom'? Are you sure? Wouldn't it be 'luck' rather, as OP said? Groom as a noun in English means someone who looks after a horse or a man getting married, and I don't see any dictionary entry that supports that translation. Not to mention it doesn't really make sense.

Edit: Wait, sorry, it's from eight years ago!


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## xrisr

Just a note relating to the original question about the translation of 'til', which still doesn't seem to have been answered.  I found 'til' to be the most puzzling thing about that rhyme.  [That, and the diversity of genitive singular inflections.]  So I found http://www.dettifoss.org/mimprep.htm to be very helpful.  Under Prepositional Phrases it lists many ways in which 'til' can be colloquially translated, including:
   about, as, by, for, in, of, on, until
Take your pick!


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## AmberShum

BTW, I'm wondering what this rythem means. Why the days of weeks are releated to these 7 words (sigurs, mæðu...)? Just because each day shares the same initial with its corresponding word? Is there a story or else?

Thank you in advance!


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## xrisr

Hi AmberShum.  Yes, I think that it is a type of rhyme where the _initial letters_ match.  (This is called alliteration.)  In English there are rhymes like "A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for cat, etc" which have a similar role in teaching young children.


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## AmberShum

xrisr said:


> Hi AmberShum.  Yes, I think that it is a type of rhyme where the _initial letters_ match.  (This is called alliteration.)  In English there are rhymes like "A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for cat, etc" which have a similar role in teaching young children.


Oh, thank you, xrisr! It makes sense.


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