--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Patricia" <originalpatricia@...>
wrote:

>
> Þeir koma af hafi og leggja utan við Agðanes. Þá spyr
> Kolbeinn Hrapp: "Hvar er fé það er þú bauðst í leigu
> undir þig?" They come from the sea and lay at anchor at Agðanes
> [lit.lay outside with ]

See my comment to Alan about 'utan'.

> Guðbrandur mælti: "Hér munt þú vera hljóta."
> Guðbrand spoke "Here you are obliged"
> [either - you have obligations of behaviour or is it "I am obliged

so to take you"]

In some contexts 'hljóta' can express what "must be", but here I think
it's more: "You will get to stay here." (See Zoega (1) and (2)).

> en þó kom svo að mörgum þótti ofkerski.
> but (later) many thought it
> over-cheerful/facetious (Z)
> overdone - ó-kerski (Z) - not sure of this

My Zoega has 'ókerskr' "weak" (CV "enn ókerskari, the weaker (the
poorer)"), and 'ofkerski' "excessive petulance" (CV "petulance"); but
'kerski', 'keski' "cheerfulness, fun" + compounds of related meaning;
'karskr' "brisk, bold; hale, hearty". CV: 'kerskinn', adj. scurrilous;
'keskni', f. scurrility; 'kerskr', adj. = karskr.

So from the root, and from the context, you'd think it ought to mean
that he's being facetious, overly scurrilous or overly familiar rather
than petulant. I don't know if the word (or the similar formation
'ofkerskni') is recorded elsewhere in this meaning. MM & HP have
"malign humour". What do the other translations have. The word
'ofljóst' "too clear" is used ironically to mean a particular cryptic
technique in poetry (using the synonym of a homonym of the intended
word), but I don't know if there are any more examples of the prefix
'of' being used ironically like that.

LN