At 11:11:33 AM on Monday, February 15, 2010, Fred and Grace
Hatton wrote:

> Skrámuhlaupsár.

<Skrámuhlaupsá> would be something like 'scar's leap's
river', but the river-name appears elsewhere as
<Skraumuhlaupsá>. The river is now simply the <Skrauma>.
According to a folk tale whose age is unknown to me, a troll
woman named <Skrauma> once leaped over the river; both the
leap and the place where it supposedly occurred would be
<Skraumuhlaup> 'Skrauma’s leap', and the place-name would be
interpreted as 'Skrauma’s leap’s river', from á 'a river'.
It seems likely, to say the least, that the name predates
the story. Possibly <Skrauma> was actually the original
name, and the river was renamed <Skraumuhlaupsá> after a
notable flood: <hlaup> can also mean a sudden rise in a
river. The etymology of <Skrauma> isn't clear; it may be
related to modern Icelandic <skraumur> and <skraumi>, both
'a braggart, a boaster', for a loud, fast-flowing river.

> Hann bjó á Hörðabólstað og var mikill merkismaður og
> kynsæll.

> He lived at Hord's Farmstead and was a great standard
> bearer? and blessed with (many?) good offspring.

Here you want Z.'s second definition of <merkismaðr>: 'man
of mark, distinguished person'. <Kynsæll> is literally
'kin-fortunate', i.e., 'fortunate in one's descendants'. My
impression is that it definitely specifies quality and
suggests quantity.

> sumarauka.
> summer-week (which made the calendar jibe).

Specifically, it was a 'leap-week'. The old Icelandic
calendar had a normal year of exactly 52 weeks (364 days),
with an extra week inserted on a regular schedule to bring
the calendar back in line with the Julian calendar. All
years therefore consisted of a whole number of weeks.

> Unnur mælti: "Svo hefi eg helst ætlað að boð þitt muni
> vera að áliðnu sumri þessu

> Unn spoke, "So have I most expected that your wedding
> feast will be to ??? this summer

<Áliðnu> is the neut. dat. sing. of <áliðinn>, glossed
'far-spent (of time)' in CV. (It's not in Z.) It has the
form of a past participle of a verb <álíða>, though I'm not
at all sure that such a verb exists. However, Z. s.v.
<líða> (6) has the impersonal construction <líðr á e-t> 'the
time draws to a close' and even <at áliðnu> 'in the latter
part of a time'. Thus, <at áliðnu sumri þessu> is 'in the
latter part of this summer'.

> það er nær minni ætlan að
> it is closer to my intention that

This is Z.'s <nær> (4) 'in accordance with, in conformity
to': 'it is in accordance with my intention that'.

> En þeirrar einnar konu ætla eg að fá að sú ræni þig hvorki
> fé né ráðum."

> And of that particular woman I expect to marry that that
> one never deprives you of money nor counsel."

The ending <-i> shows that <ræni> is a subjunctive, so it's
'would deprive', and context suggests that <ráð> here is
probably 'authority' rather than 'counsel'. In the sense
'to marry, to get in marriage' <fá> takes the genitive, and
its object here is <þeirrar einnar konu>, so the whole thing
is 'And I intend to marry only that woman that would not
deprive you of money or authority'.

> Boðið var allfjölmennt og kom þó hvergi nær svo margt
> manna sem Unnur hafði boðið fyrir því að Eyfirðingar áttu
> farveg langan.

> A great crowd of people were invited and yet neither came
> nearly as many men as Unn had invited previously because
> the folk from Eyfirth had a long way to travel.

<Hvergi nær svá margt> is 'nowhere near as many'; <fyrir>
isn't 'previously, but rather part of <fyrir því at>
'because, since'.

Brian