Re: Njal Chapter 40 and beginning Chapter 41 Patricia's Translation

> hraðfeigur
> to certain death (Z)

Or might it perhaps mean something like: fated for extremely immanent
death? Well, that's clumsy way of putting it, but if 'feigr' is
doomed to immanent death, presumably 'hrað' is an intensifier: he must
have been doomed to die very soon indeed; he was very "fey". Same
difference probably.

> og mundu það margir ætla að vér bræður mundum þetta fyrri gert hafa

að því skaplyndi sem vér höfum."

> Most would expect us brothers to be first to have done it from our

spirit/temperament

Yes, that's the idea: "And MANY would expect that we brothers would
have done this first (lit. before, earlier), from the temperament that
we have (judging by our temperament)."

> "Skammt munt þú til þess eiga," segir Njáll, "að þig mun slíkt henda

og mun þig þó nauður til reka."

> "soon may you have this " (you'll get your chance) says Njall "that

then you will be driven by need

"You won't have long before suchlike (i.e. having to kill) will befall
you, but need will drive you to it."

> gunnar játti því
> Gunnar accepted

That's right. 'ját(t)a' "to say yes (já) to; to agree to"; takes
dative for the thing agreed to: G. agreed to that.

> Gunnar sagði að það var lítill mannskaði

Gunnar said it was but little manslaughter (not a great loss !!)

I think "no great loss" is exactly what's meant. This is a typical
formulaic thing to say in sagas when someone who was no good gets
their comeupance; the "scathe" (harm, loss) referred to is that which
would be suffered by those people left behind who respected him, or in
this case the lack of a sense of loss among those who didn't!

> Hann var metnaðarmaður mikill og skáld gott og að flestum íþróttum

vel búinn, hávaðamaður mikill, spottsamur og ódæll.

> He was an ambitious man (Z) and a good poet, and was good at most

sports, but (he was) boastful (Z) noisy and overbearing(Z) or is it
sarcastic

'spottsamr' "given to mockery", 'spott(r)'
'ódæll' "overbearing, quarrelsome; difficult" (Negative prefix ó + dæll).

> Skjöldur hét félagi hans. Hann var sænskur maður og illur viðureignar.
> Skjold was the name of his companion. He was Swedish and - ill

tempered (or ill spoken) - (don't like the Swedes do they Ljot was
Swedish as in Egil's Saga)

Hmm, you could be onto something there; there's a couple of Swedish
berserks in Eybyggja saga too; berserks are always bad news.

> og luku eigi ferð sinni fyrr en...
> and made no stop until

Yes.

> illur viðureignar.

I think lit. "hard to have dealings with."

> Gunnar tók við þeim vel. Var þar frændsemi mikil með þeim Sigmundi.
> Gunnar greeted them well/warmly. There was a close kinship with the

Sidmunds (there seems to be - plural - those Sigmunds - does this mean
the two families are close-knit)

My guess would be that it's just saying that they're closely related,
but that's just a guess; I could be wrong. Ah, just checked MM / HP
-- they take it that way too.

> Er hér og vönd vistin.

This is a difficult house (MM&HP) (moderate - is he not?)

Yeah, to put it mildly...