Breakdown of Þú mátt ekki mæta í neinu nema svörtu skikkjunni.
þú
you
ekki
not
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
svartur
black
mæta
to show up
mega
to be allowed to
neinn
any (in negative sentences)
nema
except, unless
skikkjan
the cloak
Questions & Answers about Þú mátt ekki mæta í neinu nema svörtu skikkjunni.
Why are svörtu and skikkjunni in the dative case here?
The word nema (except) makes the following noun phrase match the case of the thing it is an exception to. Here, the exception is to neinu (anything), which is in the dative case because it is governed by the preposition í (in). You can think of the underlying sentence as "in anything except [in] the black cloak," meaning svörtu skikkjunni must be dative to match neinu.
Why does the adjective take the weak form svörtu instead of the strong dative feminine svartri?
Because the noun skikkjunni has the definite article attached (the -nni suffix). Whenever a noun is definite, the preceding adjective must use the weak declension. For a feminine dative adjective like svartur, the weak ending is -u.
Why use neinu instead of einhverju for "anything"?
Doesn't mæta usually mean "to meet"?
While it can mean "to meet" (where it governs the dative, as in að mæta einhverjum), it is extremely common in everyday Icelandic as an intransitive verb meaning "to show up," "to attend," or "to arrive" (for example, showing up to a party, a class, or work).
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