Thanks, LN! I have both M & P and Jones, but very often I have trouble
figuring out how they got from where I am stuck to their translations.

For instance, is the literal sense of "og liggur eigi laust fyrir"
something a bit like, (she) doesn't lie loose for (the picking)?
Grace

> Var hann jafnan sinn vetur hvort á Íslandi eða í Noregi.

"He always spent his winters alternately in Iceland and Norway."
There's another example of this construction in the Groenlendinga
þáttr selection in Gordon: 'ok var sinn vetr hvárt útanlands eðr með
feðr sínum' "and he spent his winters alternately abroad and with his
father" (Selection 5a, lines 6-7).

> út eftir Snæfellsnesi

Gwyn Jones: "out along Snaefellstrand".

> því að þar var vinátta við kjörin.
> because there was friendship in the choice

GJ "for they were on friendly terms together". But the Skólavefurinn
site seems to interpret it differently, unless I've misunderstood
them; they gloss 'við kjörin' as 'ákjósanleg' "desirable, ideal".
GJ's interpretation seems more natural in the context.

> Ormur þá þetta
> Orm received these

Or "O. accepted this (offer)". GJ "O. accepted"

> og liggur eigi laust fyrir

GJ "but she is not just for the picking up". Sk "er ekki auðsótt
kvonfang".

> Finnur það á að hún mun bæði vera mannvönd og faðir hennar.

GJ "It looks as though she will be pretty particular in her choice of
husband, and her father the same." (i.e. so will her father). See
Zoega 'vandr' (3) "careful", 'vandr at e-u' "particular about".

> Svo fyrir það

GJ "For all that"

> legðir á alendu

Sk "legðir allt kapp á"; GJ "bend all your efforts". I can't find
'alenda' in CV, Zoega, Fritzner, the Lexicon Poeticum or the Online
Icelandic Dictionary (Sanders, Tucker & Sverrir Hólmarsson); it's not
in the two Russian dictionary on the Norroen dýrð site; the Orðabók
Háskálans text database doesn't recognise it to decline (this is the
only example of it I found there); it's not recognised by the
Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls page at the OH website, nor by the
Ritmálsskrá there. The one apparent Modern Icelandic example I found
on Google of 'alenda', turned out to be the genitive plural of the
compound 'upp-alendi' "one who brings up children", which just
happened to be separated across a line division (from the verb
'ala')--so probably not relevant, unless this word is related to 'ala'
too?

> "Svo fyrir það," kvað Einar, "að hún er sú kona er ég ætla mér að

biðja og vildi ég að þessi mál kæmir þú fyrir mig við föður hennar og
legðir á alendu að flytja því að ég skal þér fullkomna vináttu fyrir
gjalda.

GJ "'For all that', said E., 'She is the woman I intend to ask for in
marriage, and I want you to handle my bid with Th. her father, and
bend all your efforts to seeing that it succeeds. If I get my way, I
shall repay you with the full weight of my friendship."

> Má Þorbjörn bóndi á líta
> May Farmer Þorbjorn take into consideration

'má' is indicative: "Th. can consider". To express a wish, I suppose
the subjunctive of 'líta' would be used where we would use 'may' in
English, e.g. perhaps: 'Líti Þorbjörn bóndi á'. GJ "Master Th. must
surely see".

> að okkur væru vel hentar tengdir
> that to us were (this) relationship well suited

Yes, that's the idea: 'tengdir' (nom.pl. "the relationship") is the
subject of 'væru' "would be" (subjunctive 3rd person pl. = Old Norse
'væri'). GJ "that these family ties would suit us both admirably" (In
typically businesslike way, he's talking about his relationship with
the father rather than with the bride!).

> en lausafé hans er mér sagt að mjög sé á förum

GJ "...is waning fast". See Zoega 'för': 'vera á föru(m)' "to be on
the wane" (lausafé hans var heldr á förum).

> og mundi Þorbirni verða að því hinn mesti styrkur ef þessi ráð tækjust.

"and Th. would acquire great resources/support if this marriage goes
ahead." GJ "it would do Th. the power of good if this match could be
arranged." This is 'styrkr' the noun (strength, force; strength,
resources; support, help), rather than the adjective 'styrkr',
'sterkr' "strong". 'tækjust' subjunctive 3rd person plural; another
modern form = Old Norse 'tækist', 'tækiz', 'tækisk'. The -j- is
introduced in such endings with a back vowel after a velar consonant:
'k' or 'g'.

LN


Fred and Grace Hatton
Hawley Pa