--- "Patricia" wrote:

> > lá hátt tanngarðurinn
>
> MM & HP "prominent teeth"

I think the author is saying that his upper teeth are
large and protruding - I'm sure there must be an English
term for that? We call them "skögultennur" - teeth
that "skaga fram" - i.e. "protrude". S. was probably ugly
as sin - but the author is being polite about it. At least
that is the sense I get from the whole description.

> > munnljótur nokkuð
> > with a somewhat ill-shaped mouth

Probably an deliberate understatement. Typical of saga
language - by understating drily (and somewhat wittily)
the statement somehow gains strength. My impression is
that Skarphéðinn's face was not a handsome one, not by
any stretch of the imagination. And the author implies
that his looks were at their worst when his mouth was
open ...

> As for Fra Keldum - I should think no one would choose to dwell

near a bog or quagmire

You'd be surprised! There is a bog smack in the middle
of Reyjavik (!) named Vatnsmýrin "The Water-bog". It is
surrounded by the local airport, the University campus and
the National Hospital. There are bogs close to many farms in
Iceland, but they tend to be rather small. Keldur is a farm
in the area where Gunnar and Njáll live, - I don't know if
there is a spring anywhere on the land, but it could also be
named from a nearby bog/marsh/morass. There is some evidence
that bogs may have been connected to sacrificial rituals in
heathen practice ...

An old proverb: "Betri er krókur en kelda" (A detour is better
than a bog).

Regards,
Eysteinn