> I had some difficulties in a couple of places. Did she lock up the

chests

> or empty them? Two verbs spelled the same way (sigh).

Hi Grace,

> Hún gekk til kistna sinna og lauk upp

She went to her chests and "opened [them]".

lúka (lauk, lukum, lokinn) - "to close"

But... confusingly enough from an English point of view, 'lúka upp'
"to open". That 'upp' makes all the difference. It's another one of
these particle verbs which Zoega lists towards the end of his entries
in the section "with preps. and advs." Some similar sounding words:

loka (-að) - "to close, to lock"
lykja (lukta, luktr) - "to shut in (e.g. shut s-on up in prison)"
læsa (læsta, læstr) - "to lock"
losa (-að) - "to loosen, undo"

Llama Nom