The novel I've choosen is Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Etwas sehr Schlimmes
Something very bad
-So, I already have a question. I've seen that the adjective is schlimm so I suppose -es is a suffix of some declension. Can anyone explain this to me?
Nachdem Bauer Flint aus dem Mitteltal gestorben war, blieb seine Witwe auf dem Hof wohnen
After the farmer Flint from the Middle Valley had died, his widow kept living* at the farm
*at least this is how I've interpreted blieb wohnen.
Ihr Sohn fuhr zur See, und ihre Tochter hatte einen Kaufmann aus Valmünde geheiratet, so dass sie allein auf dem Eichenhof lebte
Her son traveled the sea, and her daughter had married a merchant from Valmünde, therefore she lived alone at the farm*
*not sure what Eichenhof means, I couldn't find it on wordreference or even google.
I also wonder where Valmünde comes from, since I haven't found this word anywhere I suppose this must be a place name invented by the author or rather the German adaptation of an original English name but does it have any meaning or at least does it resemble some actual German word?
Die Leute erzählten sich, sie sei im Ausland,
People would tell her that she was in a foreign land,
wo sie herkam, irgendwie eine große Persönlichkeit gewesen,
Ok, I really have troubles with this. I think I understand more or less all of the words but I can't put them together to form a coherent meaning. I'm quite baffled by the fact that there is a past participle (gewesen) on its own without an auxiliary (or at least I don't see it), and I would also like to know what herkam is and how it works.
und tatsächlich kam der Magier Ogion sie gelegentlich auf dem Eichenhof besuchen. Doch das hatte nicht viel zu besagen, denn Ogion besuchte alle möglichen obskuren Existenzen.
and indeed the mage Ogion would occasionally come visit her at the farm. However that didn't mean much as Ogion would visit all the likely obscure existences.
Sie hatte einen fremdländischen Name, aber Flint hatte sie Goha genannt; so nennt man auf Gont eine kleine weiße Webspinner.
She had a foreign name, but Flint had called her Goha; which is what people in Gont called a small white spider.