> > og vil eg bjóðast til þessar ferðar.
>
> "and I want to offer myself for this expedition." (offer myself for the
> purposes of / with respect to this expedition, i.e. offer to undertake
> it myself).

> Thanks LN. While not doubting that your rendering of the `middle voice'
> bjóðast in a reflexive sense is probably intended here, is it not
> technically conceivable that it could be being used as a passive form as
> I interpreted it, ie `be-invited' ie `I want to be invited (by you
> understood) for this journey'. Kveðja Alan

Maybe; I'm not sure. (And if not, that raises the question of how to
say: "I want to be invited.) I'll look out for examples. The
(Modern) Icelandic Online Dictionary has: 'bjóðast til e-s' "offer to
do sth", i.e. "volunteer", and Google turns up lots of modern examples
that fit this meaning. So it could be that this is just the strongest
association people would have with the verb in such a context.

In Þorvalds þáttr víðförla, there's an example where 'bjóðast' seems
to mean something like "invited (for yourself)". Þorvaldr has
converted to Christianity and come home to Iceland with a bishop.
Þorvalds father Koðrán eventually begins to warm to the new faith, but
is unsure what to do about his old 'spámaðr', a supernatural being who
lives in a nearby stone and has always given him good advice.
Þorvaldr tells the bishop and the bishop prays over the rock and
consecrates it with holy water. The next night, the 'spámaðr' appear
to Koðrán in a dream and says:

Illa hefir þú gert er þú bauðst hingað mönnum þeim er á svikum sitja
við þig svo að þeir leita að reka mig brottu af bústað mínum því að
þeir steyptu vellanda vatni yfir mitt herbergi svo að börn mín þola
eigi litla kvöl af þeim brennandi dropum er inn renna um þekjuna. En
þó að slíkt skaði sjálfan mig eigi mjög þá er allt að einu þungt að
heyra þyt smábarna er þau æpa af bruna.

"You have done wrong when you invited here those men who plot against
you by trying to drive me away from my home, for they have poured
boiling water over my lodging so that my children suffer no little
torment from those burning drops which flow in through the roof. And
although that sort of thing doesn't hurt me much, all the same, it is
hard listening to the wailing of the little children as they scream
from the burning."

But all the other Old Icelandic examples I found seem to have the
sense of "offer (oneself), volunteer":

Vil eg nú bjóðast til fjárforræðis með þér.
"I'd like to offer/volunteer to undertake the management with you."
Fljótsdoela saga.

Þú bauðst mér hólmgöngu í sumar á alþingi og þótti þér sú ekki reynd
verða.
"You challenged me to a duel this summer at the Althing, and you
didn't think that one was decided."
Gunnlaugs saga.

Þessu máli viljum vér vel svara, því at þat er mikil ván, at oss
bjóðist eigi fremri konungr til mægðar en þú ert.
"We will give a favourable answer to this suit, for it is highly
likely that no better king than you are will offer himself to us
in-respect-of relationship-through-marriage." (i.e. no better king
will ask to marry my daughter).
Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.

Mikit er sár þitt, svá at þú munt varla græðandi, en þar sem eigi
liggja iðr þín úti, þá mun ek leita þér lækningar, ok vil ek bjóðast
til at græða þik, ef þú vill gerast minn maðr ok veita mér fylgd ok
þjónustu.
"Your wound is so great that it hardly seems as if it can be healed,
but since your guts aren't hanging out, I'll offer to heal you if
you'll become my subject and follow and serve me."
Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar.

LN