--- In "Fred and Grace Hatton" wrote:

>
>I couldn't figure out where giftist came from.

Verb: GIFTA (gipta) in the medio-passive, GIFTAST,
simply means "to get married to" (in OI only of the
woman, a man 'kvángast'). The sense here is basically
passive, as the indicative means "give in marriage",
or "perform a marriage".

Hún giftist honum = She got married to him
Hún var gift honum = She was his wife
Hann kvongaðist henni = He got married to her
Viltu giftast mér = Will you marry me?
Presturinn gifti þau = The priest married them
Njáll gifti dóttur sína = Njáll gave his daughter in marriage

> Then I wasn't sure if the usage of til handa was actually talking

about the

> person's hand in marriage and even then if it were, whose hand? It

looked

> like it was the man's. I decided perhaps wrongly that it

meant "for."

"Til handa" means here more or less "on his behalf". "On
behalf of Grímr he (Njáll) asked for the hand of Á.".

Then

> also there was Grímur fékk
> hennar. Did he actually marry her or was he just betrothed?

"Grímur married her".

Hope it helps,
Eysteinn