At 7:25:18 AM on Friday, July 17, 2009, Fred and Grace
Hatton wrote:

> Thanks for your help with part 10. Could you take a look
> at part 9? Both Alan and I had troubles there.

I just went ahead and did my own translation. I don't much
care for the modern Icelandic normalization -- it slows me
down, and I'm already way too slow! -- so I worked from the
Finnur Jónsson edition; this shouldn't be a major problem,
though I did notice one or two places where the underlying
texts differ slightly. Anyhow, here it is:

Mörðr gekk at dómi ok nefndi sér vátta ok vann eið, at meiri
hlutr var rétt kvaddr búanna. Kvaz hann þá hafa borgit
frumsökinni -- 'skulu óvinir várir af öðru hafa metnað en
því, at vér hafim hér mikit rangt í gört.'

Mörð went before (the) court and named witnesses for
himself and took (an) oath that (the) greater part was
properly summoned from among the neighbors. [<Kvaddr> is
masc.nom. sing. and so must modify <hlutr>; <búanna> is
gen. pl. with article.] He then said that he has saved
the original cause -- 'our enemies will have pride in
something other than this, that herein we have acted very
wrongly.'

Var þá rómr mikill at því görr, at Mörðr gengi vel fram í
málinu, en tölðu þá Flosa ok hans menn fara með lögvillur
einar ok rangyndi. Flosi spurði Eyjólf, hvárt þetta myndi
rétt vera, en hann léz þat eigi víst vita ok sagði
lögsögumann ór því skyldu leysa. Fór þá Þorkell Geitisson
af þeira hendi ok sagði lögsögumanni, hvar komit var, ok
spurði, hvárt þetta væri rétt, er Mörðr hafði mælt.

Then this was much applauded, that Mörð was making a good
case of it, but they reckoned Flosi and his men to
practise only fraudulent procedures and unfair dealings.
[<Ganga vel fram> is 'to step forward bravely, e.g., in
battle'; in a more general sense I take this to mean that
someone is making a good showing in an adversarial
situation.] Flosi asked Eyjólf whether this would be
right, but he professed not to know that for certain and
said that (the) law-speaker should answer this. Then
Þorkel Geitisson went on their behalf and told (the)
law-speaker where (matters) had come and asked whether
this were right, that Mörð had said.

Skapti svarar: 'Fleiri eru nú allmiklir lögmenn en ek
ætlaða. En þér til at segja, þá er þetta svá rétt í alla
staði, at hér má ekki í móti mæla, en þó ætlaða ek, at ek
mynda nú einn kunna þessa lagarétting, nú er Njáll er dauðr,
því at hann einn vissa ek kunna.'

Skapti answers: 'There are more very great lawyers now
than I thought. But to inform you about (it) [<segja til
e-s>], this is so correct in every respect that here (one)
can speak nothing against (it), although I thought that I
alone would now know this law-mending, now that Njál is
dead, because he alone I knew to know (it) [i.e., because
I knew that only he (besides me) knew it].'

Þorkell gekk þá aptr til þeira Flosa ok Eyjólfs ok sagði, at
þetta váru lög. Mörðr Valgarðsson gekk at dómi ok nefndi
sér vátta -- 'í þat vætti,' sagði hann, 'at ek beiði búa þá,
er ek kvadda um sök þá, er ek höfðaða á hönd Flosa
Þórðarsyni, framburðar um kvið, at bera annat tveggja af eða
á; beiði ek lögbeiðingu at dómi, svá at dómendr heyra um dóm
þveran.

Þorkel then went back to Flosi and Eyjólf and said that
this was the law. [This time I ignored <þeira> in the
interests of better English. Note also that the the last
clause is really 'the law was this': <váru> is plural, so
the plural noun <lög> must be the subject, not the
singular pronoun <þetta>.] Mörð Valgarðsson went before
(the) court and named witnesses for himself – 'in witness
thereof,' he said, 'that I ask those neighbors that I
summoned concerning that suit that I brought against Flosi
Þórðarson for delivery of a verdict [CV s.v. <framburðr>],
to give (it) either for or against; I ask (this) by a
lawful demand in court, so that (the) judges hear across
(the) court.' [<Lögbeiðingu> is an instrumental dative,
as Grace had it, not a direct object in the accusative.]

Búar Marðar gengu at dómi; talði einn fram kviðinu, en allir
guldu samkvæði, ok kvað svá at orði: 'Mörðr Valgarðsson
kvaddi oss kviðar þegna níu, en vér stöndum hér nú fimm, en
fjórir eru ór ruddir.

Mörð's jury of neighbors went before (the) court; one set
forth the verdict, and all gave (their) consent, and spoke
thus: 'Mörð Valgarðsson summoned us nine freemen to jury,
but we stand here now five, and four are challenged out.

Brian