Breakdown of Maður tekur málminn og snýr honum á steðjanum.
og
and
hann
he
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
taka
to take
málmurinn
the metal
maður
one (impersonal pronoun)
snúa
to turn (+ Dative)
steðjinn
the anvil (m)
Questions & Answers about Maður tekur málminn og snýr honum á steðjanum.
Why is the pronoun honum necessary after snýr, and why couldn't we just say og snýr á steðjanum?
This is how Icelandic handles case conflicts in coordinated clauses. The first verb, taka, requires its object in the accusative case, giving us málminn. However, the second verb, snúa, requires the dative case. Because the cases do not match, you cannot just drop the object in the second clause like we often do in English. You must add a pronoun in the new verb's required case, which is why the dative honum appears here.
Why does the sentence use honum to mean 'it' instead of the neuter pronoun því?
Pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they refer back to. The word for metal, málmur, is a masculine noun. Because snýr requires the dative case, we must use the dative masculine pronoun honum rather than a neuter one.
How is the word steðjanum formed in this sentence?
The root word is the weak masculine noun steðji (anvil). The preposition á requires the dative case here because it indicates a static location, which changes steðji to steðja. Finally, adding the dative masculine definite article suffix -num gives us steðjanum.
Does maður just mean 'a man' here?
No, in this context maður is used as an indefinite pronoun meaning 'one' or the generic 'you'. This is the standard way to make general statements about what people do in Icelandic, and it always takes a third-person singular verb.
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