Thanks, Brian!

Thanks for your help, Brian.
Grace

> Kari didn't speak about assistance with him because he
> expected that it would go with him (that he would aid him
> in a ) friendly (way) as another.

... because he expected that he (= Gizurr) would act in as
friendly a manner in that (matter) as in other (matters).

[...]

> Hann sagði þeim um ferðir Flosa og hversu mikið lið hann
> hafði þegið í Austfjörðum.

> He told them about Flosi's journey and how great a crowd
> he had received in (the) East Fjords.

... and how much aid he had received ...

> Kári sagði að það var vorkunn að hann bæði sér liðs svo
> mörgu sem hann mundi svara eiga.

> Kari said that it was to be excused that he beg for help
> for himself as he would be obliged to answer for much.

... for himself, since he would have so much to answer for
(i.e., so many charges to answer).

> Þorgeir mælti: "Því betur er þeim fer öllum verr af."

> Thorgeir spoke, "Better is it, worse go to all them."

The edition that I'm using makes if <at> rather than <af>.
Since <fara at> can be 'to do, to behave' (<illa hefir mér
at farit> 'I have done my business badly'), that makes good
sense: it would then be 'The better, when they all do
worse', i.e., 'The worse they do, the better'. <Er> seems
to be the complementizer, not the verb 'is'. (In other
words, I'm punctuating it <Því betr, er þeim ferr öllum verr
at>.

[...]

> Kári mælti: "Jafnt fer þér þetta sem hann ætlaði því að
> þér eru allir hlutir illa gefnir.

> Kari spoke, "This goes with you even as he expected
> because to you are all choices badly disposed?

Literally '... because to you all things are ill given', but
actually '... because you think badly of all things (<allir
hlutir>)'.

The idiom is at Zoëga s.v. <gefa> (6): <e-m er e-t svá
gefit> 'one is so and so disposed, thinks so and so of a
thing'.


Fred and Grace Hatton
Hawley Pa