# It was he we saw the tracks of down by Rausand Hill.



## Michael Zwingli

This is a sentence from an old book of Norse "fairy tales" in English. I am wondering how to translate the object clause of this sentence, "it was he", into Ancient Greek. Of course, a less stylized way of rendering this thought would be "We saw his tracks (or, "the tracks of him") down by Rausand Hill", and I am wondering how "_It was he_ we saw the tracks of down by Rausand Hill", wherein the object he/him is rendered within an initial object clause, might be rendered in Greek, as opposed to the more straightforward "We saw _his_ tracks down by Rausand Hill". Thanks.


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## Paulfromitaly

How would you translate it?


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## Michael Zwingli

Paulfromitaly said:


> How would you translate it?



Both the object phrase and "down by" have me pretty stymied, but I'll give it a shot in the dark:

_τό οὗ ἦν τα ίχνη ἔβλεπεν κάτω από τον Rausand Hill_ (???)


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## Michael Zwingli

@Paulfromitaly, have you any commentary on my attempt? I'm not sure if your question above was a request for form, or for my interpretation of the syntax...


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## Paulfromitaly

Michael Zwingli said:


> if your question above was a request for form


It was 
Giving it a go always helps native speakers help you.


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## velisarius

I'm afraid I can't help you with Ancient Greek  , but I think we need to get the English sentence straight first:

_*It was he* whose tracks we saw... whose tracks we saw _is a relative clause_.
*It was he* (that) we saw the tracks of... that we saw the tracks of _is a relative clause.

As far as I can see, it's the tracks that need to be in objective case because we saw the tracks, not "him". _It was he _contains no object, even though in colloquial English we might be tempted to use the objective case, "him".


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## Michael Zwingli

velisarius said:


> ...but I think we need to get the English sentence straight first:


Haha, studying Latin and Greek exposes my ignorance of basic English grammar almost daily! If only I had realized the importance of that while in school...


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## ioanell

velisarius said:


> *It was he* whose tracks we saw...


Οὑτοσὶ ἦν ὁ ἀνὴρ οὗ τὰ ἲχνη χαμαὶ εἲδομεν…


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## ioanell

@Paulfromitaly, are you the moderator (who replaced Ireney) responsible for the Greek forum?


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## ioanell

Paulfromitaly, I kindly asked you something above and you haven't responded so far. Apart from your implied answer, have you probably disdained such a response?


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## bearded

ioanell said:


> Οὑτοσὶ ἦν ὁ ἀνὴρ οὗ τὰ ἲχνη χαμαὶ εἲδομεν…


A very elegant translation!


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