I'm pretty sure that I've duplicated some of Alan's
comments.

At 1:18:03 PM on Saturday, February 20, 2010, rob13567
wrote:

[...]

> Eftir það gefur Unnur fleirum mönnum af landnámi sínu.

> After that Unn gives (gifts) of her (land) settlements to
> several men.

<Landnámi> is actually (dative) singular: she gives from her
settlement to several people, meaning that she gives them
parts of the land that she's taken.

[...]

> Hans son var Ásbjörn auðgi er bjó í Örnólfsdal á
> Ásbjarnarstöðum.

> His son was Abjorn (the) Wealthy who lived in Ornolfsdale
> in Asbjarnarstown. [["Asbjorn's Steads"]]

The place-name <Ásbjarnarstaðir> (dative <Ásbjarnarstöðum>)
is morphologically plural, but it should probably be
translated as if it were singular, 'Ásbjörn's stead':
*every* Old Icelandic place-name containing the <staðr>
element uses the plural <staðir>. The reason for this isn't
known, so far as I can discover, and there is no obvious
reason for a plural.

> Hann átti Þorbjörgu dóttur Miðfjarðar-Skeggja.
> He married Thorjorg, daughter of Midfiardar-Skeggia.

Her father's name was <Miðfjarðar-Skeggi>: <Skeggja> is the
genitive of <Skeggi>.

[...]

> En yður er það kunnigt að eg hefi frelsi gefið þeim manni
> er Erpur heitir, syni Melduns jarls.

> And (on the other hand) to you it is known that I have
> given them freedom, to a man called Erp, son of Earl
> Meldun. [not sure how to resolve the plural "them" and the
> singular "man"] [[Is it possible the "them" refers to all
> the people she gave freedom to, and she picks Erp as the
> first example???]]

<Þeim> isn't plural here: it's the dative singular masculine
of <sá>, matching the dative singular <manni>. <Ek hefi
frelsi gefit þeim manni er Erpr heitir> is 'I have given
freedom (to) that man who is called Erp'.

[...]

> Telur margt manna kyn sitt til hans.

> Many men's kin is reckoned to (descended from) him.
> [Somehow I don't think that's right....] [[this should be
> more "traced to" than "descended from" it looks like]]

See Zoëga s.v. <telja>: <telja kyn sitt til e-s> is 'to
trace once's descent from'. 'Many people trace their
descent from him.'

> Hans dóttir var Þorgerður, kona Ara Mássonar á
> Reykjanesi, Atlasonar, Úlfssonar hins skjálga, og Bjargar
> Eyvindardóttur, systur Helga hins magra.

> His daughter was Thorgerd, wife of Ara Masson

Ari Már's son. (<Ari> is a weak masculine, with oblique
cases <Ara>; <Más> is the genitive of <Már>.)

> of Reykjanes, Atlas' son,

Atli's son. (<Atli> is another weak masculine.)

> Ulf the Squinter's son, and Eyvind's daughter Bjarg,

Björg.

> sister of Helga the Learn.

Helgi the Lean. (<Helgi> is yet another weak masculine.)

In case the relationships aren't entirely clear, Ari is the
son of Már, who is the son of Atli, who is the son of Úlfr
and Björg. In this version Björg's father is Eyvindr, and
Magr-Helgi (or Helgi hinn magri) is her brother; in other
versions Magr-Helgi is her father.

> Vigdís hét hin sétta dóttir
> Vigdis was the name of the seventh daughter

Sixth; 'seventh' would be <sjaunda>.

[...]

> Ólafur feilan var yngstur barna Þorsteins.

> Olof (I hope that's the masculine form of the name) the
> Timid was (the) youngest of Thorstein's children. [[I know
> Brian had made a note about this in a previous
> translation, but I still got it reversed: "Olaf" is the
> masculine version]]

And the byname doesn't mean 'timid': it's simply a borrowing
of the Old Irish masculine name <Fáelán>, which is a
diminutive of <fáel> 'a wolf'.

> Hann var mikill maður og sterkur, fríður sýnum og
> atgervimaður hinn mesti.

> He was a large man and strong, evident peace [I know this
> isn't right] and the greatest
> man-of-great-physical-accomplishments. [["... strong,
> handsome in appearance, and the...."]]

Note that <friðr> 'peace' has a short vowel, while <fríðr>
'beautiful, handsome' has a long vowel.

[...]

> Ólafur tók því vel og kveðst hennar forsjá hlíta mundu um
> það mál.

> Olof took this well and said (he) would rely on her
> foresight concerning that time. [["Olaf." Also, I see that
> the verb is in the reflexive form, which I haven't
> conveyed]]

You've translated that part just fine: <hann kvezk hlíta> is
precisely 'he said that he would trust/rely on'. Where ON
uses <kvezk> and an infinitive with no explicit subject,
English uses <said (that)> and a clause with a subject and a
finite verb.

[...]

> Það sama haust fékk Ólafur feilan Álfdísar.

> That same autumn Olof the Timid got (i.e., married)
> Alfdise.

Álfdís (Englished <Alfdis>).

[...]

> Unnur hafði mikinn fékostnað
> Unn had great [fékostnað??? expenses?]

Yes, except that it's singular: <fékostnaðr> appears within
the entry for <fékátr> in Zoëga. <Kostnaðr> by itself is
also 'expense'; although <fé> can refer to various kinds of
wealth, I suspect that the compound <fékostnaðr> implies
monetary expense.

> Hún bauð Birni bróður sínum
> She invited her brother Birn

Björn; <Birni> is its dative.

[...]

Brian