> Era gapriplar góðir

"Gawping isn't good", negative! This is `er(u)' "are" + the negative
suffix -a, an archaic feature found mainly in poetry. It replaces a
short final vowel. I guess you all saw from CV that the word
`gap-riplar' is a hapax legomenon (i.e. this is the only surviving
example of it) [
http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/png/oi_cleasbyvigfusson/b0191.png ]. Some
editors print it with a long vowel: `gapríplar', but as far as I know
long or short would be equally metrical here.

Patricía mælti: if pl. Alan - then maybe it signifies something much
repeated - in the past

I guess it might be a repeat offence, but I don't think we can assume
that's being made explicit from the fact that it's plural. Icelandic
words often have a plural form where we would have singular in English
where the difference is just arbitrary and idiomatic, e.g. `lög' "law
laws"; bú-ráð "household-management" (see below); `ragna-rök' "the
doom of the powers (gods), the end of the world".

> gægr? gægur? gægjur?

CV has a verb `gægjask' "to be all agog" and a feminine plural noun
`gægjur' in the expression `standa á gægjum' "to stand agog, on
tiptoe" [ http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/png/oi_cleasbyvigfusson/b0222.png
]. But as it appears here, maybe it's a singular noun `gægr' (which
would make it a conventional A type line: / x / x / x [
http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/meter/meternew.html ]). But I could be
wrong...

> nema hún væri í braut rekin

Patricía segir: (was sent?) went away

Yes, sent away, driven off, made to leave! Past part, of `reka'.

Patricía sagði: I see a better rendering of Hoskuld's name as Hoskuld
Kolsson - of the Dale

Well, literally: Hoskuld son of Koll-of-the-Dales (genitive plural).
His father was Dala-Kollr.

> Hvað sýnist þér ráð Hrútur frændi?

"What plan / course of action seems to you (to be fitting), kinsman Hrut?"

> Þá var skipað konum í annað sinn. Sat þá Þórhalla meðal brúða

Patricía þýddi (translated): Then it was arranged the women were
re-seated (and) Thorhalla sat between the two brides
Þá mælti hon: (all this changing chairs - I do not think I have this
down - rightly)

You got the right idea. The preposition `meðal' "between" takes
genitive. The first clause, `þá var skipað konum í annað sinn' can be
translated with a normal English passive: "then the women were
assigned to seats for a second time / then the women were re-seated".
The impersonal construction is just used in the passive because
`skipa' takes dative for the person(s) assigned to seats. This
impersonal passive is used with verbs that take a dative or a genitive
object, but if the verb takes an accusative object, the accusative
becomes nominative in the passive as it would in English.

> og virðist það vel

Patricía þýddi: and was valued well (was highly regarded )

Yes, what was highly regarded, "it / that" = "that he gave good gifts
to many".

> fengsöm og atkvæðamikil

Re. Grace's question: As I recall, we had trouble with the adjective
`fengsamr' once before. I remember looking up other examples of it in
the concordance [
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/norse_course/message/6798 ].
Eysteinn: "So, obviously the word is not at all negative per se." The
basic idea seems to be "(well) able to get hold of provisions", and
then the exact connotations or implications, positive or negative,
have to be supplied from the context. Although `atkvæði' has "magic
spell" among its meanings, I don't think that's what's being suggested
here. See Zoega's fourth definition, "decision" -- which could tie in
with the idea of `atkvæðimikill' being "bossy, overbearing".

> Grjótá

`grjót' "stone" (neuter singular used collectively) + `á' "river".

Patricía svaraði: I believe - Grace - it is just the management that
they each took over

Agreed. `bú-ráð' = `bú-stjórn', the management of the household or farm.

LN