Sorry, but I thought I recalled you as the list moderator.
But that was Arlie (of course :-)
Any way, the list seems to be working now, but you
were right that the chars did not come through properly.
One computer needs to use Unicode, the other Western,
in order to read the same chars properly. Confusing.
I'd also like to say that I changed my mind about "byzk".
Contrary to what I thought in my first post, I now see it
more clearly as a form of "bjóask".
That is because the "z" in this normalisation is used
for the contraction of "rs" > "z". This seems to be the rule :
alveole + /rs/ -> <z>.
In that case, backtracking by replacing the z with
the rs, from which it was derived by contraction, we obtain
byzk <-- byrsk <-- byr sik
The last form then clearly is from *bjóa* or bjóa sik = bjóask.
The meaning should then be something like "to offer oneself".
hann byr -- he offers
hann byr sik -- he offers himself
hann byzk -- same meaning: he offers himself.
If it had been from *búa* (to prepare), then it would have been
"hann byr", "hann byr sik" --> "hann bysk" (he prepares himself)
In other words, there wouldn't have been a "z", but just a plain "s".
The presence of the "z" indicates that an alveole (the ) used to
be there.
Thus Samr proposes, offers himself, or volunteers to be their
chief instead of Hrafnkell. (Hrafnkels saga Ch. 15)