> hjalta

Genitive singular of a weak masculine nickname, `hjalti' [
http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/png/oi_cleasbyvigfusson/b0265.png ]. Well
attested both as a name and a nickname. CV associates it with the
noun hjalt `boss or guard of a sword', and there's the legendary hero,
`Hjalti inn hugprúði' who gets his name from a sword, at least
according to Hrólfs saga kraka. But Patricia's idea seems reasonable
too; CV mentions a plural `Hjaltar' "Shetlanders" (=Hjaltlendingar).
Haukur gave both possibilities in his Nafnasafnið [
http://www.irminsul.org/arc/012ht.html ]. Another list just gives the
meaning "man from Shetland" [
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONMensNames.shtml ].

> ef eg gæti vel fyrir mér séð

MM & HP paraphrase: "if I could find myself a good match."
lit. "if I could (manage to) see well for myself", i.e. do well for
myself (cf. Zoega, `sjá fyrir e-u / e-m' "take care of, provide for",
e.g. verðr hverr fyrir sér at sjá, Laxdoela saga, ch. 61, which MM &
HP translate "everyone must fend for themselves").
According to CV, in the old texts, `geta' + past participle can mean
"can, manage to do something, succeed in doing" (in a particular
instance), but had yet to acquire its more general modern meaning
"can, be able to do" (on any and all occasions).

> Nefn þú þá að því þá er þú vilt eiga

MM & HP: "Whom do you want? Name her?"
Robert Cook (Complete Sagas of the Icelanders): "Then name the one you
want to marry." (Thanks Patricia for looking that up.)
I'm not sure about `að því'. It's been suggested to me that it could
mean "in reference to that (i.e. what you've just said)". But I'll
let you know if I find out more. Does anyone have any other versions
of this line, e.g. translation by Robert Cook published by Penguin?

> að þú látir þér annars víti að varnaði.

þú látir – subjunctive (presumably because this is what he's *not* doing.)
Lit. "that you let [be] to-you another's punishment for a-warning"
"that you let another's punishment be a warning to you."

> Má að hana hendi eigi slík ógifta í annað sinn.

lit. "it may be that such misfortune will not befall her a second time"
MM & HP: "Perhaps she will not have such ill luck a second time."
A tactful way of putting it...

> og var Höskuldur úti fyrir er hann reið í tún.

"and H. was outside there when he rode into the home-meadow." I
think `fyrir' in this context means "present", "there", Zoega's III
(3), and `er' = "when" he arrived.
MM & HP: "H. was outside when he rode into the home-meadow."

> Höskuldur segir Hrúti hvað þar var komið manna.

"...what men had arrived", "who had come" (lit. "what of men).