Sæll Llama Nom!

London is nice. Fine weather here, snowstorms back home. Want to get
together over a pint and finish Ellisifjardrápa? :)

Your analysis of "illa gefið" is interesting although I'm still not
entirely convinced. I just had this exchange with my wife:

H: Hvað þýðir fyrir þér: "honum var allt illa gefið"?
A: "Hann var engum mannkostum búinn."

That's what it means to me too so I'm going to try to force this
interpretation on your text sample :)

> Björn hét maðr. Hann var ráðgjafi konungs. Honum var allt illa
> gefit, er honum var sjálfrátt. Hann var lyginn ok lymskr at öllu,
> en þó eigi at síðr var hann inn mesti kappi ok varði land konungs
> fyrir víkingum, ok því mat konungr hann mikils.
> (Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra 2)

My translation: "A man was named Björn. He was the king's advisor. All his
qualities which he himself had control over were bad. He was prone to lies
and ever deceitful and yet he was a great fighter and defended the land of
the king against pirates and because of that the king held him in high
esteem."

Kveðja,
Haukur