--- "llama_nom" wrote:

> I don't know if this would have been on the minds of people building
> farms, but those bogs could come in handy for defense. There's a
> scene in Þorgils saga ok Hafliða where attackers are thwarted thanks
> to a combination of 'blautar mýrar' and sword-weilding women.

Good point. I've established that the "Keldur" in Njáls saga
actually refers to springs. However, that doesn't mean a bog
or two would ever keep a farmer away. I spent a lot of my
childhood in and around Icelandic farms, and I can't recall a
single one that didn't have a bog close by. And a lot of the
hay-fields I laboured on were surrounded by marshy land or had
a morass nearby. It probably means there is a lot of water in
the soil a short way below the surface, and this probably makes
for good grass growing there, which means a good harvest of hay.
Bogs usually have lush vegetation.

> > > > lá hátt tanngarðurinn
>
> > I think the author is saying that his upper teeth are
> large and protruding - I'm sure there must be an English
> term for that? We call them "skögultennur" - teeth
> that "skaga fram" - i.e. "protrude". S. was probably ugly
> as sin - but the author is being polite about it. At least
> that is the sense I get from the whole description.
>
> Buck-toothed maybe? Although that's specifically the top front

teeth

> sticking out, i.e. like a rabbit's.

Yeah, I was fishing for that word, but it isn't exactly
what we need. This applies to more than the front teeth,
although it would mean that the front teeth would be quite
prominent. Any dentists in the room?

E.