At 11:21:05 AM on Thursday, January 21, 2010, Fred and Grace
Hatton wrote:

> I had lots of difficulties in the beginning and couldn't
> really figure out what Thorstein was saying or what the
> exchange between Bui and Esja was all about.

I think that this is in large part because to a considerable
extent they're talking in proverbs, maxims, and the like.

> Is she telling him that she is helping him with her magic?

I *think* that she's implied that she did so; my candidate
for her assistance is the sudden fall of total darkness.

> Þorsteinn mælti þá: "Nú er við ramman reip að draga er
> bæði er að eiga við hund og tröll

> Thorstein spoke then, "Now it is pulling a rope against a
> strong man when both is (are?) to fight, dog and troll,

I think that the reason for the singular verb <er> (after
<bæði>) is that this is to be thought of as equivalent to
<er bæði (hund er at eiga við) ok (tröll er at eiga við)>
'when both (a dog is to be fought) and (a troll is to be
fought)'. However, I'd translate it with 'are': 'Now it is
pulling a rope against a strong men when both a dog and a
troll are to be fought' -- more or less 'It's just too
bloody hard to fight both a dog (Búi) and a troll (Esja) at
once, so for now we'll go back'.

> En vilja skal eg til hafa að sá verði fundur okkar Búa að
> við eigum ekki báðir frá að segja."

> But I shall want to have that that fight ? be ours, Bui
> (and mine), that we have not both to speak of it.

Zoëga s.v. <sá> (2): 'such'. 'But I shall desire it to
happen (hafa til) that our meeting/battle, Búi's and mine,
happens such that we don't both have to tell of it.'

> (That either one or the other dies?)

That's how I interpret it.

> Eftir það sneru þeir aftur og báru förunauta sína með sér
> og undu allilla við sína ferð.

> After that they turned back and carried their comrades
> with them and (urdu?) with their journey was very bad.

<Undu> is the 3rd plur. past tense of <una> 'to enjoy, be
happy with, or be content with a thing'. (It can also be
from <vinda> 'to wind, to twist', but that gets one nowhere
fast.) <Allilla> is the adverb 'very badly', so it's '...
and were most unhappy with their journey'.

> Bar það og mál manna að þeim hefði allilla til tekist
> ferðin.

> It was also said by people the journey had happened all
> for the bad.

More specifically, it had turned out very badly for *them*
(þeim).

> Esja mælti: "Þóttist þú nú ekki liðfár vera um hríð?"

> Esja spoke, "Did it not seem to you to have been short of
> men for a while?"

'Did you not think yourself [just] now to be short of men
for a while?'

> Búi mælti: "Eigi þurfti nú fleiri."
> Bui spoke, "(I) needed now now more."

'I did not need more [just] now.'

> Esja mælti: "Eigi varstu nú einn í bragði með öllu."
> Esja spoke, "You were not now alone for a short time? with
> all."

I'm inclined to think that <með öllu> has its adverbial
sense 'altogether, quite' (Zoëga s.v. <með> I(9)): 'not
altogether alone'. Fritzner's dictionary gives 'Gjerning,
Foretagende' ('deed, action, undertaking, enterprise') as
one meaning of <bragð>, and it would fit well here: 'You
were not [just] now altogether alone in [the] action',
referring to the fight.

> Búi mælti: "Gott þykir mér góðs að njóta."
> Bui spoke, "It seems good to me to have the help of God."

No gods here: <gott> and <góðs> are both inflected forms of
the adjective <góðr> 'good'. I make it: 'It seems good to
me to benefit from good.' A shorter version, 'Gott er góðs
að njóta', appears in a collection of proverbial sayings at
<http://www.tilvitnun.is/printableshowotherquotes.aspx?ID=&Type=M&name=G>

> Esja mælti: "Mun þér ekki enn leiðast eltingar Þorsteins?"
> Esja spoke, "You will not still be tired of Thorstein's
> pursuit?"

Here <ekki enn> is 'not yet': 'Will you not yet be tired of
Þ.'s pursuit?' Probably the most natural English version is
simply 'Are you not yet tired ...' or, more colloquially,
'Aren't you tired yet ...'.

> "Þá vissi það," sagði Búi, "ef eg ætti nokkurs trausts
> von."

> "That certainty (?), then," said Bui, "if I had
> expectation of some help."

<Vissi> can only be a subjunctive of <vita>, in the modern
language either 1st or 3rd person sing. or 3rd person plur.
in the present or past tense. (In classical ON the 1st
person sing. would be <vissa>.) This text uses modern
spellings, and the best sense that I can make of <Þá vissi
það> is to take <vissi> as 1st person sing. with the
subject, <eg>, omitted: <[eg] vissi það> 'I would know
that'. I'm taking <Þá ... ef ...> as an inverted 'if ...
then ...', so that <Þá> doesn't actually need to be
translated: 'I'd know that better,' said Búi, 'if I had hope
of any help'.

That said, I have to admit that there is one problem with
this interpretation: I found online an edition showing
manuscript variants, and it appears that the mss. have the
two subjunctives here as <vissi> and <ætta>, not <vissa> and
<ætta> as my interpretation would require in classical ON.
On the other hand, their orthography shows many features
that we think of as modern, so I'm tentatively assuming that
<vissi> is an early instance of the modern form of the 1st
sing.: so far I've not come up with any way to make sense of
the phrase if it's really a 3rd person form.

> Esja mælti: "Til margs verður hætt jafnan."
> Esja spoke, "To many things danger is always (present?)."

<Hætt> can't be the noun 'danger': that's a weak feminine,
<hætta>, so <hætt> isn't among its inflected forms. It must
instead be the past participle of <hætta>. Zoëga notes
<hætta til e-s> 'to risk a thing', so this is 'Many things
are always risked.' In other words, there's always risk,
and you can only take your chances. I suspect that this is
either proverbial or a variant expression of a proverbial
saying.

> Eftir það skildu þau talið.
> After that they ceased conversation.

Note the postposed article: 'After that they ended the
conversation'.

> Sneri hann þá austur á holtið þar er hann sá gjörla til
> bæjarins að Hofi.

> He turns then east to the forest there when he saw clearly
> to the farm at Hof.

<Þar er> is 'there where', not 'there when': 'Then he turns
east to the wood where he saw [= could see] clearly to the
farm at Hof'.

> Sá sneri
> That one turned

A minor point, but since you kept the ON tense before, I'll
note that this is actually 'That one turns' (or, better,
simply 'He turns': the demonstrative here functions pretty
much as a personal pronoun).

> Hann greip þá til Þorsteins með því móti að hann tók
> annarri hendi undir knésbætur honum en annarri undir
> herðar honum.

> Then he seized Thorstein in that way that he put one hand
> under his hamstrings? and the other under his shoulders.

<Knésbœtr> is the plural of <knésbót>, which according to
Zoëga s.v. <knésbót> is 'the hollow of the knee', so one
hand is behind Þ.'s knees, and the other is under his
shoulders. (Clearly Búi must have rolled him over in the
process, since he found Þ. prostrate before the altar.) CV
essentially agrees, saying that the <knésbœtr> are the
houghs: <hough>, when applied to a human being, is 'the
hollow part behind the knee-joint; the adjacent back part of
the thigh'. (So far as I know, the word is obsolete except
possibly in Scots.)

> Með þeim hætti
> With that manner?

Yes, or simply 'In that way/fashion/manner'.

> heilinn hraut um gólfið.
> the brain flew about the floor.

'Across' is probably a little better than 'about' in this
case. (It's certainly a graphic description!)

> Búi bar hann þá út úr hofinu og kastaði honum undir
> garðinn.

> Bui carried him out then out of the temple and cast him
> under the fence.

Where 'under' means something like 'at the base of'.

> Hann tók þá eldinn þann hinn vígða og tendraði.
> He then took that special concecrated fire and kindled
> (it).

It's possible that <tók> isn't literal here: <taka eld> is
'to strike fire', as in <tók hann þenna eld með tinnu> 'he
lit that fire with a flint'. We could have a stylistic
redundancy here: 'He then lit and kindled the consecrated
fire'. Another possibility is 'He then lit the consecrated
fire and kindled [a flame]'.

> Síðan bar hann login um hofið og brá í tjöldin.

> Afterwards he carried fire about the temple and set
> fire to?? or tore down?? the hangings.

Think of it as <Síðan bar hann login um hofið ok brá [hann
login] í tjöldin>: 'Then he carried the flame about the
temple and set [it] to the hangings'.

> Las þar brátt hvað af öðru.
> (Fire?) gathered there quickly from other (places?).

Zoëga s.v. <lesa> (2): 'to grasp, catch', with the
untranslated example <eldrinn las skjótt tróðviðinn> 'the
fire quickly caught the faggot-wood', or as we would say,
'the faggots quickly caught fire'. For <hvat> note Zoëga's
II(1) 'each, every', with the example <hvat at öðru> '"each
with the other", everything': <hvat af öðru> must be 'each
from [the] other'. <Hvat> is actually the subject of <las>:
'Each quickly caught [fire] from [the] other', i.e., the
fire spread quickly from hanging to hanging.

That was definitely harder work than usual.

Brian