Thanks, LN, I have missed your corrections and felt I was bumbling about
quite a bit.

'óvinsæll' is "unpopular, disliked": friendless rather than
unfriendly, although we can imagine that he might have been that as well.

> Síðan var skammt að bíða að hver tók sótt að öðrum og önduðust.
> Afterwards (there)was scarcely (time) to ask (as to) who became sick
of (the) others and (who) died.

"Then it wasn't long [to wait] before they each took ill, one after
another, and died."

'bíða' 1) "to wait" +gen. for what one waits for.
'bíða' 2) "to undergo, suffer" +acc. for what is undergone.
'biðja' "to ask" +gen. for what is asked for; +acc. for person asked.
'bjóða' "to offer" +acc. for what is offered; +dat. for person it's
offered to.

'hver ... að öðrum' "one after another".

> Og eitt kveld fýsist hún að ganga til garðs þess er stóð í gegnt
útidyrum. Guðríður fylgdi og sóttu þær í mót dyrunum.
> And one evening she insisted on going to this yard which was next to
the outer door. Gudrid followed and they sought the door on returning.

'fýsast' "to wish, desire". 'fýsist' is 3rd person present indicative;
the preterite is 'fýstist'. 'til garðs þess er stóð í gegnt útidyrum'
-- Gwyn Jones explains: "S. wanted to go to the privy which stood
opposite the outer door." 'sóttu þær í mót dyrunum' "they were going
towards the door" (plurale tantum, i.e. singular ameaning but
grammatically plural). See Zoega 'soekja' 10 for this sense. At this
Jorvik Viking Centre museum in York (England), they have (or had) a
mock-up of a Viking Age toilet which took the form of a fenced off
square just outside the house. Maybe there's a picture somewhere
online? The gloss at Skólavefurinn just says: "Reitur sem er
afmarkaður með hlöðnum vegg eðe girðingu og stóð beint á móti bæn."
The Jorvik version, if I remember rightly, had wooden fencing, rather
than a drystone wall.

> áttu

In this case, I think it's present: "you have", i.e. 'átt' + suffixed
'þú'.

> liðið allt hið dauða
> Here is all the people, the
dead,

Lit. "all the dead host", "the whole dead host" (i.e. "the whole host
of the dead"). 'hið dauða' is neuter singular and thus modifies
'liðið' (lið + def. art.), rather than being in apposition to it.

> Var þá og verkstjórinn horfinn er henni þótti áður hafa svipu í
hendi og vilja berja liðið.
> Then was also the overseer disappeared who seemed to her before to
have a whip in hand and wishes to whip (the) crowd.

'vilja' is infinitive, dependent on 'þótti': "and seemed to her to
want to whip the crowd".

> Og þann sama dag ætluðu menn út að róa og leiddi Þorsteinn þá til
vara og í annan lit fór
> And that same day people intended to row out to sea and Þorsteinn
lead them to ?? and as it became dusk he went

'vara' is gen.pl. of 'vör' "landing place".

> yfir líkunum
> over the body

"over the bodies", dat.pl. + article. Singular would be 'líkinu'.

> Sjá þú nú ráð fyrir

"You decide what to do", "It's up to you".

> Vera kann, að...
> That this can be

"It could/might/may be that..."

> Hún svarar: "Vera kann að þetta sé ætlað til nokkurra hluta þeirra
sem síðan eru í minni hafðir, þessi hinn undarlegi hlutur, en eg vænti
að guðs gæsla mun yfir mér standa.

> She answers, "That this can be, be intended to any choice of theirs
as afterwards were in memory had to this the remarkable choice(I
couldn't make any sense of the preceding), but I am accustomed that
God's watch will stand over me.

"It could be that this is meant (by Providence) as (i.e. to have the
same role/function as) certain things which are remembered (i.e. signs
from God), this miraculous thing, but I hope that God's protection
will stand over my."

GJ: "...as one of those things which are to be stored in our hearts
hereafter"

'til' = "as".

I'm sure there's something in Faarlund: Old Norse Syntax about this
use of the demonstrative with an ostensibly indefinite noun. In fact,
I think I might have quoted it here a while back...

> Vil eg síður að hann gangi víðara. En mig grunar að það sé að öðrum
kosti."
> I wish less that he walks in the wide world. But I guess that it be
to another choice??."

"I would want even less (than meeting him now) for him to walk further
/ more extensively (GJ: walk abroad more widely). But/and I suspect
that that's the alternative." i.e. If I don't chose to see him on this
occasion, the other option (not seeing him now) will entail more
widespread hauntings by him.

Grace
Fred and Grace Hatton
Hawley Pa