Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Posted by RRC on January 05, 2010 at 13:53

In Reply to: Nothing ventured, nothing gained posted by John Helms on January 04, 2010 at 22:08:

: The origin of "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" appears to be Njal's Saga, in which Wolf asks Hrut, "What's best to be done now, Icelander?" Hrut replies, "Hold on our course, for nothing venture, nothing have."

In 1861, George W. DaSent put that on the page while translating it into English, however running the Icelandic version through Google Translate tells me
Wolf said: "What shall now take advice Icelander?"
"Keep the journey," said Ram, "because not enough ófreistað.
so we don't have 13th Century Icelanders to thank for the phrase.