When I translate ON sentences, my goal is to try to learn ON,
therefore, I try to in essence, metamorphisize English into Old
Norse. Meaning, by making a litteral translation, you are changing
contemporary semantics to closer to OE. So here is my take:
bondi is common in ON as being translated as "farmer" because that
is what a bondi normally did. Farm. But, literally, bondi would
translate to bond, to be bound to and thus is not totally free. Now
a bondi may be bonded to a land, to society via social norms, i.e.
class restrictions, or to a person, as in fuedal relations.
"Þorsteins bónda góðs"
Literally Thorstein's good bond which implies some degree of
relation which, IMO, would be bond dependent on the frauja or lord.
At any rate, I would translate it as "Thorsteins good serf" which
implies the relationship and tries to stay true to the original ON
text as possible. It could also translate as "Thorstein's good
slave" but I think this would be correct because if that was the
intention of the author it would been written as "Thorsteins bonda
thrael" not "bondi". Farmer or Serf would be appropriate depending
on the semantic context in which it was written, i.e. the author's
intentionality.
Hann fór útan vestr þar í fjörðum með umráði Þorsteins bónda góðs,
ok Þóris stýrimanns,
he fared out west of the Fjords with
(Umraði) of Thorstein, a good bondsman and Thorir the Steersman (or
Captain) - yes! It is hard to find an appropriate equivalent for
bónda góðs - perhaps good yeoman or just good farmer [to me bondsman
implies something more along the lines of a servant - but, hey,
we're really nit-picking now :-)!!]