At 6:28:24 PM on Monday, January 4, 2010, Fred and Grace
Hatton wrote:

> Helgi bjóla

> Helgi bjola?,

The meaning of the byname isn't known for sure. It may be
related to the Old Irish masculine name <Beollán>, which
appears in Landnámabók as <Bjólan>.

> Helgi átti Þórnýju dóttur Ingólfs

> Helgi was married to Thornyja? daughter of Ingolf

<Þórnýju> is here the accusative of <Þórný>; the dative is
also <Þórnýju>, and the genitive is <Þórnýjar>. (So far as
I know, all feminine names in <-ný> decline in this
fashion.)

> Helgi skipaði skipverjum sínum lönd þau sem hann hafði
> numið.

> Helgi assigned land to his crew, that (land) which he had
> taken.

<Lönd> is plural, and it's modified directly by the
demonstrative <þau> that follows it: Helgi assigned to his
crew those lands that he had taken.

> Hann fékk Þrándi á Þrándarstöðum, Eilífi í Eilífsdal,
> Hækingi í Hækingsdal, Tind á Tindsstöðum

> He made over to Thrand Thrand's Stead, to Eilif to Eilif's
> Dale, to Haeking Haeking's Dale, to Tind Tind's Stead

Note how the name of the farm includes the appropriate
proposition: he gave Þránd 'at Þránd's Stead', to Eilíf 'in
Eilíf's Dale', and so on.

> Konofogor Írakonungur.

An ON form of Old Irish <Conchobar>.

> Þessi fyrrnefndur maður varð fyrir konungs reiði.

> This aforementioned man became (a target?) of (the) king's
> anger.

To be excessively literal, one might say 'came to be before
the king's wrath'; I think that I'd make it 'faced the
king's wrath'. (The change from 'anger' to 'wrath' isn't
significant; I just have a weakness for using English
cognates when they exist, and <reiðr> is from an earlier
<vreiðr>, cognate with <wrath>.)

> Hann fór að finna Patrek biskup frænda sinn en hann bað
> hann sigla til Íslands "því að þangað er nú," sagði hann,
> "mikil sigling ríkra manna.

> He went to meet Bishop Patrick, his kinsman, and he bade
> him sail to Iceland, "because thence are now," said he,
> "many powerful men sailing.

<Ríkra manna> is a genitive plural modifying <mikil
sigling>, the subject of the verb <er>, and you've got the
direction of <þangat> 'thither' backwards: 'because now
there is much sailing of powerful men thither'.

> En eg vil það leggja til með þér að þú hafir þrjá hluti.

> And I want to say? that to you that that you have three
> parts (advantages?).

<Leggja til> here must be 'to furnish, to contribute' (Zoëga
s.v. <leggja> (14), <leggja e-t til>). Ah, better yet: s.v.
<með> (2) we have <leggja til með e-m> 'to help one by word
or deed'. <Hluti> is acc. plur. of <hlutr>, here in the
sense 'things' (Zoëga, (7)). Excessively literally, it's
'And I want to contribute to you that you have three
things'; more reasonably, 'And I want to help by giving you
three things'.

> Það er vígð mold að þú látir undir hornstafi kirkjunnar og
> plenarium og járnklukku vígða.

> It is ?? earth? that you (be) protected? under the corner
> pillar of the church and full assembly?? and iron bell.

<Vígð> is the past participle of <vígja> 'to consecrate';
<vígð mold> is 'consecrated earth'; <látir> is 2nd person
sing. subjunctive of <láta> in its first sense, 'to put, to
place'. <Plenarium> is a Latin term used in the Roman
Catholic Church for a complete book of formulas and texts
that might otherwise be scattered amongst several books:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plenarium>

Here <undir> should take the accusative, since motion is
involved; I rather think that <hornstafi> is an accusative
plural, and that the earth is to go under all four
hornstafir.

The final <vígða> is again 'consecrated', modifying
<járnklukku>; the only real mystery here is why this noun
phrase is in the accusative, since one would expect
<járnklukka vígð>, parallel to <vígð mold>. Perhaps the
writer was thinking of one of the versions of this passage
in Landnámabók: <Biskup lét hann hafa með sér kirkuvið ok
járnklukku ok plenarium ok mold vígða>, in which there are
four things, all in the accusative as objects of <hafa>.

Anyhow, I make it more or less 'That is [really 'Those are']
consecrated earth that you are to put under the corner
pillars, a plenarium, and a consecrated iron bell'.

> Þá skaltu sigla vestur fyrir

> Then shall you sail west first

Not 'first', but 'along (the coast of Iceland)'.

> hann mun fá þér bústað sunnan undir því fjalli er fyrr
> sagði eg þér frá.

> he will give you a farmstead from the south under that
> mountain which I previously told you of. There you shall
> have

It makes better sense, I think, if <sunnan> has its other
basic meaning 'south of', so that the whole is 'a farmstead
south of and under'.

> Eftir það býr Örlygur ferð sína

> After that Orlyg got a fair wind (? byr?) for his voyage

<Býr> is 3rd sing. pres. indic. of <búa>; the idiom is <búa
ferð sína> 'to make ready for a voyage'. 'After that Ørlygr
made ready for his voyage'.

> Hann tók í Þerneyjarsundi höfn.

> He reached a harbor in Therney? Sound.

The place-name is from <þerna> 'a tern': 'Tern Island
Sound'.

Brian