Hann á og kaupskip í siglingum.
MM & HP: "and in addition, he owns a trading ship which is at sea just
now."
Hugsa svo um bóndi að bróðir minn mun mér mjög hafa fram haldið fyrir
ástar sakir.
MM & HP: "'You must realise,' he said to Mord, 'that brotherly love
makes Hoskuld exaggerate my virtues.'"
viljið
Here's another small difference between the standardised medieval
orthography and modern. In the older language, -ji- in endings was
contracted to -i-. Thus "you-pl. will/want/wish": viljið (new) =
vilið. (old). And the nominative singular of the noun meaning "will,
wish, desire": vilji (new) = vili (old). And later in this chapter:
sitji (new) = siti (old), 3rd person sg. subjunctive of 'sitja'.
> Mörður svaraði: "Hugsað hefi eg kostinn. Hún skal hafa sex tigu hundraða
> og
> Mörð answered: `I have considered the terms. She shall have sixty
> hundreds and
>
> skal aukast þriðjungi í þínum garði
> (it) shall be increase by a third into your house
MM & PP: "Unn's dowry from me will be sixty hundreds, which you are to
increase by half". Question: so does that mean that Hrut has to match
the contribution from the bride's family, or that he has to match it
twice over? At a guess maybe the first?
MM and HP have a footnote here: "The hundred (in fact 120) refers to
ells of woollen cloth, and was a common method of computing value.
Six Icelandic ells (approximately 3 yards) was equivalent to one
Icelandic ounce, and there were 8 ounces in the legal mark. Thus
Unn's dowry was 150 marks. Hrut's inheritance (later in this chapter)
of "200 marks" was actually 240 marks. In terms of livestock, one
milch cow or six sheep were worth nearly 2 marks at this time. Unn's
dowry was equivalent to 80 cows, Hruts inheritance to 128 cows."
> Hrútur mælti: "Þenna kost vil eg og höfum nú votta við."
> Hrút spoke: `These terms (sg) I want also and we have now to attest to
> (them).'
MM & HP: "'I accept these terms,'" said Hrut. "Let us now call in
witmesses."
'votta' is the accusative plural of 'vottur' "witness". To find it in
in Old Norse dictionies, see 'váttr' (Zoega lists the phrases: hafa
vátta við, nefna vátta). The preposition 'við' here has the sense of
"present" (as in "here with us"). This is another example of the
change á > o after v. Compare: váru > voru; svá > svo; ván > von.
Hallbjarnarvörðum
MM & HP: "Hallbjorn Cairns"
Þá reið í mót þeim Þjóstólfur, son Bjarnar gullbera úr Reykjardal
'úr' "from (out of)" usually appears in the standardised old spelling
as 'ór', although both forms were used in medieval times; an earlier
form was 'ýr'. MM & HP "Then Th. son of B. g. from R. came riding
towards them" They treat it more like part of the name or
description, rather than saying necessarily that he's just come from
there when he meets them. Question: is it possible to tell just from
the syntax whether it's him or his father that is "from Reykjadalur"?
I suppose semantically it might as well apply to either.
Össur
In standardised old spelling: Özurr. Also in this chapter:
fjárvarðveislu (new) = fjárvarðveizlu (old).
sem fyrst
> at the first (opportunity)
That's right; MM & HP: "as soon as possible".
sem + superlative "as ... as possible"
Höskuldur fór og þeir báðir.
Not a correction, I just thought I'd call attention to this very
un-English idiom. MM & HP: "and together they rode to the ship"
En er Hrútur spurði þetta
Another example of 'en' "and" rather than "but", I think. In English
(to me at least), "but" implies a much stronger contrast, or that the
second clause is something unexpected which isn't an obvious thing to
happen after the first clause, but Old Norse / Icelandic 'en' is often
used to express a much weaker contrast, such as a change in subject
from one character to another.
> en hann leiddi þig til arfs á Gulaþingi og munu nú taka óvinir þínir
ef þú and he pronounced you to inheritence (as his heir?)
Yes, MM & HP: "He named you as his heir"
> Eigi hendir svo
As BV says. It won't happen thus. That's not going to happen. MM &
HP: "That's out of the question". The present tense on its own can
have a future meaning.
fékk
Earlier spelling: fekk.
> komu að við Hernar á Hörðalandi og sigldu síðan austur til Víkur.
> came to (land) by Hernar in Hörðaland and sailed afterwards to Vík
> (Bay).
Hernar. MM & HP "the Hern Islands"
Vík. Oslo Fjord