--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Gaël DEEST <gael.deest@...> wrote:

>
> Here is mine ! It took me some time. I'm unsure about a couple of
> things, hence the question marks and comments. Please tell me if there
> are problems with Unicode characters.

Welcome aboard, Gael! The Unicode characters work fine for me.

> 'Gunnar Lambason hljóp upp á vegginn
> Gunnar Lambason jumped upon (?) the wall

That's right.

> 'Skarphéðinn mælti þá: "Séð er nú hversu vera vill."'
>
> Skarphéðinn then speaks: "The things are now as they must be" (???)

'séð' "seen" is the neuter past participle of the verb 'sjá' "to see".
The text we're using has been adapted to Modern Icelandic spelling,
hence 'séð'. In normalised Old Norse spelling, this would be 'sét'.
Possible translations:

"It is now seen how things will be."
"Now one can see how it will be."
"It can now be seen how things will turn out."

> Hvort hljóp þar maður út af þekjunni?
> Whither jumped there a man out of
> the roof ?" (Where has he gone, I guess)

'hvort' here is serving as an interrogative particle. It just
introduces a question: "Did a man jump out (from) off the roof there?"
In normalised Old Norse spelling, this would be 'hvárt'. In other
contexts, it can introduce an indirect question, in which case it can
be translated into English as 'whether' or 'if', e.g. 'hann vildi
vita, hvárt hann var í brynju' "he wanted to know whether/if he wore a
coat of mail". This word is also the neuter nominative and accusative
form of the pronoun 'hvárr' "which (of two)".

> > *I didn't find out which verb 'slökkti' came from, but the meaning
> seems clear from the context.

You guessed right. The vowel 'ö' is used in Modern Icelandic and in
many editions of Old Icelandic texts (especially on the internet) both
for the hooked o (the o with a small hook underneath it), and for the
o with a slash through it (ø). So if you don't find the word you're
looking for, it's often worth looking up both possible spellings. In
this case, Zoega's dictionary has:

sløkkva (-ta, -tr), v. (1) to extinguish, put out (heimamenn sløktu
eldinn); (2) to slake, quench (s. hungr, þorsta).

I hope between us all we've clarified your other uncertainties. But
just ask if you're still unsure of anything either in the translation
or in my explanations. Good luck with the rest.