Breakdown of Jötunninn sem hetjan hafði talað við vildi hefnd.
tala
to speak
vilja
to want (to will, be willing)
hafa
to have
sem
who / which / that
við
with (talking with)
jötunninn
the giant
hetjan
the hero
hefndin
the revenge
Questions & Answers about Jötunninn sem hetjan hafði talað við vildi hefnd.
How does this sentence use the past perfect tense?
It uses the past tense of hafa (to have), which is hafði here to match the singular subject hetjan, followed by the supine form of the main verb. The supine of tala (to speak) is talað. Together, hafði talað creates the past perfect meaning 'had spoken'.
Why is the preposition við at the very end of the phrase sem hetjan hafði talað við?
Just like in English, Icelandic often leaves prepositions at the end of a relative clause. Instead of a formal structure like 'to whom the hero had spoken,' you simply say 'that the hero had spoken to.' The preposition við connects to the verb to form tala við (to speak to/with).
Both Jötunninn and hetjan are in the nominative case. How do we know which verb belongs to which subject?
Jötunninn (the giant) is the subject of the main sentence, so it connects to the main verb vildi (wanted). The word hetjan (the hero) is the subject inside the relative clause started by sem (that), so it acts as the subject for the past perfect verb hafði talað (had spoken).
Why does hetjan end in -n while Jötunninn ends in -inn?
These endings are the definite articles attached to the nouns to mean 'the'. Jötunn is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine suffix -inn. Hetja is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine suffix -n. Keep in mind that hetja is always grammatically feminine, even if the hero in the story happens to be male!
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