Breakdown of Hún vill ekki fórna hugjóninni fyrir raunsæið.
hún
she
ekki
not
vilja
to want (to will, be willing)
fyrir
for (fyrir þig)
raunsæið
the realism
fórna
to sacrifice
hugjónin
the ideal
Questions & Answers about Hún vill ekki fórna hugjóninni fyrir raunsæið.
Why is hugjóninni in the dative case here?
The verb fórna (to sacrifice) governs the dative case. In Icelandic, the object that you are giving up or sacrificing must take the dative. Therefore, the feminine noun hugjón (ideal) with the attached definite article becomes hugjóninni.
Fyrir can take either the accusative or the dative case. Why is raunsæið in the accusative here?
When fyrir means "in exchange for," "instead of," or "for the sake of," it takes the accusative case. If it were in the dative case here, it would imply physical location, meaning she was sacrificing the ideal physically in front of realism!
Since the current lesson is about the abstract dual pronoun hvort tveggja (both), how would I modify this sentence to say "She doesn't want to sacrifice both"?
Because the verb fórna strictly requires the dative case for the thing being sacrificed, you must put the pronoun hvort tveggja into the dative form, which is hvoru tveggja. The sentence would simply become: Hún vill ekki fórna hvoru tveggja.
Both hugjón and raunsæi seem to have a root related to "seeing". How are these abstract nouns built?
They are both excellent examples of Icelandic compound words using sight to describe abstract concepts. Hugjón (ideal) comes from hugur (mind) + sjón (sight, vision)—literally a "mind-vision." Raunsæi (realism) comes from raun (reality, trial) + sæi (seeing/observation).
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