Breakdown of Guðinn hafði bundið úlfinn en hann hræddist hefndina.
hann
he
en
but
hræðast
to fear
hafa
to have
guðinn
the god
binda
to bind
úlfurinn
the wolf
hefndin
the revenge
Questions & Answers about Guðinn hafði bundið úlfinn en hann hræddist hefndina.
How does the past perfect tense work in the phrase hafði bundið?
Just like in English, it combines the past tense of the helping verb hafa (to have) with the supine form of the main verb. Since the subject Guðinn is third-person singular, we use hafði followed by bundið (bound) to show this action was completed before he felt fear.
Why does the verb binda change to bundið here?
When used with hafa to form perfect tenses, the main verb must be in its supine form (sagnbót). For strong verbs like binda, the core vowel changes. The supine always looks exactly like the neuter singular form of the past participle, and it never changes to match the gender or number of the subject.
Why does hræddist have an -st ending?
It is the past tense of hræðast (to fear). This is a middle voice verb, meaning it always carries the -st ending and doesn't have a regular active form for this meaning. Even though the -st ending sometimes implies doing something to oneself or to each other, here it simply means the subject experienced fear.
Which case are the nouns úlfinn and hefndina in, and why?
They are both in the accusative case because they are the direct objects of their verbs. The verb binda (to bind) dictates that the object being bound (úlfinn) is accusative. Similarly, the verb hræðast takes an accusative object for the thing being feared, so the feminine noun hefnd (revenge) takes the accusative definite article -ina.
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