A bit slow this time: I was out of town for a while.

> Í þenna tíma voru margir menn íslenskir í Noregi, þeir er
> virðingamenn voru.

> In this time many Icelandic men were in Norway, they who
> were men of distinction.

> In that time many Icelandic men were in Norway, those who
> were men of distinction.

> At this time (there) were many Icelandic people (men) in
> Norway, those (is this just grammatically masc to agree
> with maðr, or does it indicate that the writer really
> means males?) who were persons (men)-of-honour
> (distinction).

I think that it's grammatical, though I imagine that most of
them *were* men.

> Eitt skip átti Brandur hinn örvi son Vermundar
> Þorgrímssonar.

> Brandur the incited(?), son of Vermundar Thorgrimson,
> owned the first ship

> Brandi the open-handed, son of Vermund Thorgrim’s son,
> owned one ship.

> Brandr the Charitable (örvi = örláti) owned one ship, son
> of Vermundr Þorgrímr’s-son.

I'd say 'generous' or 'open-handed' rather than
'charitable': <örvi> is the weak nominative singular
masculine of the adjective <örr> 'liberal, open-handed'.
(This adjective has an inherent <v> that shows up before <a>
and <i>.)

> Annað skip átti Hallfreður vandræðaskáld.

> Hallfred the troublesome poet owned the second ship.

> Hallfred troublesome-poet owned the second ship.

> Hallfreðr the Skaldic-poet of perplexities (aren´t they
> all?) owned (the) second ship.

<Vandræðaskáld> is 'troublesome poet'; the implication is
that the man himself was troublesome/difficult, not his
poetry. If I remember correctly, the byname refers to the
difficulty the king had in getting him to convert.

> Þykist Kjartan nú eigi skilja hversu sjá leikur mun fara
> og þykist Kjartan aldrei komið hafa í jafnrakkan stað
> fyrr.

> Kjartan didn't think now how to break off the game will go
> and Kjartan never thought to have come to an equal
> (rakkan?) place previously.

> Kjartan now thinks not to understand how this game will go
> and Kjartan thinks never to have been in an equally
> straight??? position before.

> Kjartan bethinks-himself not to discern how that sport
> will go (turn out) and Kjartan bethinks-himself never to
> have come into a spot requiring-equal-boldness (rakkr =
> djarfr) before.

This sense of <rakkr> is found in CV but not in Zoëga.

Brian