At 8:07:11 PM on Friday, March 12, 2010, rob13567 wrote:
> As previously, comments in double brackets [[xyz]] were
> added after consulting the translations of my colleagues.
> Þorgerður bjó ferð sína til Íslands og sækir heim Höskuld
> son sinn í Laxárdal.
> Thorgerd made ready for a journey to Iceland and visits
> (the) home of Hoskuld her son in Laxardal.
The sense is fine, but <heim> here is the adverb, not the
noun; Zoëga s.v. <heim> even has <skja e-n heim> 'to visit
one; to attack one'. Thus, <skir heim Höskuld> is 'to
visit Höskuld'.
[...]
> Nokkurum vetrum síðar tók Þorgerður banasótt og andaðist
> og var hún í haug sett en Höskuldur tók fé allt en Hrútur
> bróðir hans átti hálft.
> Some years (lit. winters) later Thorgerd took
> death-sickness (i.e., became mortally ill) and died and
> she was set in a cairn and Hoskuld took all the wealth but
> his brother Hrut had half. [[Apparently, this is "Hrut had
> a right to half," though I am not sure how.]]
See Zoëga s.v. <eiga> (4): 'to have a right to, to have a
claim to' is simply one of the meanings of the verb.
[...]
> Hann var jafnan sinn vetur hvort með Hákoni konungi eða að
> búi sínu.
> He was always [sinn vetur??] whether with King Hakon or
> at his farm. [["He was always in winter either with..."]]
See Zoëga s.v. <sinn> (poss. pron.) (5); literally it's
something like 'He was always his winter either ... or ...'.
[...]
> Sá fjörður skerst í land norður frá Steingrímsfirði og
> gengur þar fram háls í milli.
> The fiord stretches inland from the north from Steingrim's
> fiord and goes from the a ridge in (the) middle.
It stretches inland northwards from S. I'm pretty sure that
<háls> is the subject of the second clause; <í milli> is
'between', and the best sense that I can make of it is that
the land separating Steingrímsfjörðr from Bjarnarfjörðr
where the latter branches off to the north from the former
ends in a ridge: 'That fjord stretches inland northwards
from Steingrímsfjörð, and a ridge extends forth there
between [the two fjords]'.
[...]
> Sá þótti þá kostur bestur í öllum Vestfjörðum.
> (She was) thought then the best match in all Vestfiord.
> [[OK, "sá" means "that" rather than "then" here?]]
<Sá> is the masc. nom. sing. demonstrative pronoun 'that
(one)'; it's masc. to agree with <kostr>. 'That [= she] was
thought then [the] best match in all the West Fjords.'
> Af þessi konu hefir Höskuldur fréttir
> Of this woman Hoskuld began to hear
<hefir fréttir> 'has news/intelligence'
> Höskuldur reið heiman með tíunda mann og sækir heim Björn
> bónda í Bjarnarfjörð.
> Hoskuld rode from home with 9 men and visits farmer
> Bjorn's home in Bjorn's fiord. [[I see I could have been
> more literal referring to the "tenth man."]]
Yes, but <með tíunda mann> 'with the tenth man' actually
means 'with nine (other) men', so 'with nine men' is right.
[...]
> Síðan vekur Höskuldur bónorð en Björn svarar því vel og
> kvaðst það hyggja að dóttir hans mundi eigi vera betur
> gift en veik þó til hennar ráða.
> Next Hoskuld makes a proposal and Bjorn answers this well
> and states that (he) believes that his daughter would not
> be better married but handed it over to her decision to
> agree. [[I was fairly certain that I had to be wrong
> about the "not be better married" part. Apparently it
> might mean "given in marriage"?]]
He thinks that she 'would not be better given in marriage',
i.e., that H. would be the best of matches for her. There's
no 'to agree': he simply handed it over to her decision.
[...]
> en þó mun faðir minn mestu af ráða því að eg mun því
> samþykkjast hér um sem hann vill."
I make it 'but nevertheless my father will mostly decide (af
ráða), because I will consent here to that which he wants.'
[...]
> Sækir Björn norðan til boðsins með fríðu föruneyti.
> Bjorn visits from the north to his wedding feast with a
> fine retinue. [["Sækir" is "go" rather than "visit"?]]
It can be: see Zoëga s.v. <skja> (10).
[...]
> En er veisluna þraut þá fer hver heim til sinna heimkynna
> með góðri vináttu og sæmilegum gjöfum.
> And when the banquet comes to an end, then everyone
> goes home to his household with good friendship and [?] gifts.
<Smiligr> 'honorable, becoming, fitting'; it's cognate with
English <seemly>.
[...]
> Vel var um samfarar þeirra Höskulds og ekki margt
> hversdaglega.
> Their travelling together was well and not a lot of
> commonly. [[Apparently, translating this is a bit of a
> tough nut to crack. I know my version does not make sense
> in English.]]
<Samfarar> is the nom. plural of <samför>, which most often
appears in the plural. The relevant sense is 'wedded life':
'[Things] were well concerning their married life', i.e,
they had a good marriage. <Hversdagliga> can be 'in
general, generally, with few exceptions', and Fritzner uses
this sentence to exemplify that sense, but <ekki margt> is a
bit of a puzzle. I'm inclined to take it to be parallel to
<vel>, <ekki margt var um samfarar þeirra hversdagliga>,
with <margt> meaning 'communicative' (Zoëga s.v. <margr>
(3)): they got on well enough with each other in their
married life, but they generally weren't very communicative,
very outgoing with each other.
Brian