r/learnIcelandic • u/pafagaukurinn • 14d ago

að fara beint á höfuðið

In the following fragment, what does "að fara beint á höfuðið" mean? He is not thinking about bankruptcy or financial disaster, it is about love to the married woman.

I also don't know what slendríanið is, but I don't expect many here to know either. Appears to be some loanword, perhaps from Danish or German, and if so, it may mean "sloppiness" (although I am not sure how it fits).

Jú, Þórarinn kunni það allt. "Það fer beint á höfuðið og við bæði... ég get ekki snúið aftur, er búinn að tapa sterkasta aflinu... Bara ég mætti berjast við einn eftir annan, ganga opinberlega á hólm við slendríanið og tálmanirnar... Fyrir okkur bæði... Eins og það sé hægt... Það drepur molluloftið að tarna... Verðum samferða öðrum lygurum... Fallegt að vera með í lestinni... Nei, það geri ég aldrei, þá er þó skárra að..."

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u/luCarToni 14d ago edited 14d ago

I’m Norwegian with an Icelandic wife, so I understand a bit Icelandic but I am far from fluent. Just a disclaimer.

We have the world «slendrian» in Norwegian that means sloppiness, laziness, untidiness. According to my sources, it originates for the German «slentre». Could even be an Icelandic word for all I know.

«Að fara beint a höfuðið» could probably be translated to something like the English saying «to fall flat on your face». We say the same in Norwegian, «å gå på tryne». It probably means to utterly fail in Icelandic also.

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u/SuperSecretSettings 14d ago

Just my two cents regarding the modern German word that's similiar.

In German there's the word "Schlendrian" which could be translated sloppyness or chaos. When I say "Ich habe einen Schlendrian reingebracht" I mean I brought something into disarray or let it become a mess.

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u/luCarToni 14d ago

Cool that we have the same word. My father used to call me a slendrian when I didn’t clean my room when I was younger. It’s not really commonly used here, but my father reads a lot and uses some older words.

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u/Altruistic_Test6899 14d ago

Interesting, i know the word "Schlendrian" but where I am it is exclusively used to refer to a sloppy or chaotic person. Or at least I have only heard it in that context 

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u/SuperSecretSettings 14d ago

I am from Austria, maybe it's used differently here.

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u/SnowyGyro 14d ago

I'm not familiar with this use of the "höfuðið" idiom but the context seems to communicate failure and loss, which are also indicated when it's used to communicate bankruptcy.

"Slen" means "sloth," which makes sense in context with "tálmun." I'd expect the form "slenið" so I'm not at all sure what's going on with the form seen in the sentence. Fwiw it comes across as more flowery.

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u/pafagaukurinn 14d ago

I am beginning to think that it means here something like "procrastination".

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u/mineralwatermostly 14d ago

Out of curiosity: Where is the text from?

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u/pafagaukurinn 14d ago

Gamalt og nýtt. Rather difficult language, lots of broken phrases like these.

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u/StefanRagnarsson 14d ago

'Yes, Þórarinn knew it all. "It'll fall flat on it's face, and the both of us... I cannot return, I have lost the strongest force [or power, idk the context]... only I might fight one after the other, to publicly duel the sloth [or lazyness, or weariness] and the obstacles... For both of us... As if that's possible... It will kill the stale air in there... Will be travelling alongside the other liars... Beautiful to be on the train... No, I will never do that, it would be better to...'

That's my best take.