> var þar á land upp

...was (in residence / staying) up country? Inland?

CV: "in phrases denoting to be placed, to sit, to be seated, the seat
or bench is freq. in the acc. where the dat. would now be used;
konungr var þar á land upp, the king was then up the country, the
spectator or narrator is conceived as looking from the shore or
sea-side, Nj. 46"

I remember being confused by similar example in Hálfs saga ok
Hálfsrekka: Þat doemði landsfólkit, at Æsu væri drekkt í mýri, en
Hjörleifr konungr sendi hana upp á land með heimanfylgju sína. "The
people sentenced Asa to be drowned in a swamp, but King Hjorleif sent
her up to the mountains with her dowry" (Bryant Bachmann and Guðmundur
Erlingsson). In that case, it's in Norway.

> og voru þeir engir að né eina íþrótt hefðu til jafns við hann.
> various contests (sports) with his men and (but) they were none that

in any contest had equality with him (none were his match in any
contest). (Zoega: jafn, a (2) hafa e-t til jafns við en, to be one´s
match in a thing)

Would a literal version of this something be like "and there were none
there (=at) who could match him and-not (=né) in any contest" ? I'm
not entirely sure about that...

> og hatt gerskan (görskr?).
> and a exquisitely-crafted hood.

According to Z.:

gerzkr = Russian (i.e. garð + iskr, cf. Garðaríki, Garðar)
girskr = Greek, or Russian (presumably by confusian with the other word)

But according to CV, 'gerzkr' can also = girskr "Greek". So
theoretically either, I guess, unless there's a particular type of hat
which was identified as Russian or Greek specifically. That seems to
be the assumption of MM & HP, with the Russian fur-cap. Furs were
exported from Garðar / Russian to Byzantium, weren't they? Maybe
that's a more likely material for a hood that whatever material would
be exported from Byzantium. I'm just guessing here. What do other
translations have?

> er þú baðst þess næstum."
> when you asked about that last-time.'

"about" in the sense of requesting something: "when you asked for-that
(for me to do that) last time", genitive with 'biðja' for the thing
requested. Patricia ("when you asked me this"), 'þess' = the neuter
genitive sg. of 'þat'; the genitive of 'þetta' is 'þessa'. For me,
either "this" or "that" sound natural in the context, but I'm sure
I've met examples where it would have sounded strange to translate
'þat' or 'þetta' in the usual way as "that/it" and "this".

> Gunnar lagði hug á Bergljótu frændkonu jarls og fannst (passive of

finna) það oft á jarli að hann mundi hana hafa gifta honum ef Gunnar
hefði nokkuð þess leitað.

> Gunnar set his heart on (fell in love with) Bergljóta, (the) Jarl's

(Earl´s) kinswoman, and that was noticed often by the Jarl (Earl) that
he would have to marry her to him if Gunnar had sought that in-any-way.

It think this is rather that "it was often apparent/noticed from
looking at the jarl that he (the jarl) would have given away his
daughter in marriage to him (Gunnarr)..."

LN