> I picked up a copy of MM & HP´s translation of Njála in good condition
> at a second-hand book fair last weekend – only $1.50 (Aust) which is
> about 60p! So now, if I underline some text, it means that even with MM
> & HP´s help I´m still not sure of the grammatical construction.

Congratulations! Excellent news for my typing fingers :-)

> Svo nokkuru mun yðvar leita farið (what function is this performing

in the sentence?) lengi.


farið = farit, neuter sg. of 'farinn', the past participle of 'fara'.
Impersonal, literally something like "(it) will be gone to search
for you for about that length of time)." There is a similar
impersonal construction in German 'es wird' + past participle, but in
English we have to rephrase it somehow, e.g. by making it personal
"they will search" or "the search will last about that long", or maybe
with a passive "you will be searched for only so long." MM & HP's
idea of turning it into a negative works well too: "they will not
search ... longer."

> eigi er hins verra eptir ván, er slíkr ferr fyrir
> (could someone please parse this?)

ván, nom.sg.f. "expectation". Subject of 'er' "there is".
hins, gen.sg.m. of 'hinn'. The noun 'ván' takes a genitive complement
to express the thing which is expected.
verra, comparative adj., gen.sg.m. of 'verri', agreeing with 'hins'.
eptir, preposition "after, behind"

"there is not an expectation of that-one worse..." = "anyone who is
worse". Another example of demonstatives used with indefinite
meaning, cf. Faarlund's comment and the examples I quoted here [
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/norse_course/message/7079 ].

er "...when" slíkr "such a one (as this)" ferr "goes" fyrir "in front."

Hence: "with such a man out front it was not likely that a worse would
follow" [ http://www.usask.ca/english/icelanders/proverbs_BNS.html ].