At 8:33:48 AM on Thursday, May 20, 2010, Stridmann wrote:

> Second attempt:

I've removed the remaining HTML entities, substituting plain
ASCII equivalents.

> "Ek haf verit maðr konungs ágæta í Miklagarði.

That should be <hefi>, not <haf>. However, I'd use a simple
past tense here, <Ek var>. You want the strong declension
of <ágætr>: <konungs ágæts> or <ágæts konungs>. However,
<konungr> probably isn't the best choice. There is at least
one instance of <Grikkjakonungr> to refer to the eastern
emperor, but the usual terms seem to have been
<stólkonungrinn> and <(Miklagarðs) keisari>. Perhaps:

Ek var hirðmaðr stólkonungsins ágæta í Miklagarði.

> Vér drukkum vín konunglig ok átum ór gulldiskum ok sváfum
> á purpurapellum ..."

I wasn't sure whether <konungligr> could be applied to
something like wine, but in the 6th chapter of 'Bærings saga
fagra' I found <Þar váru fram bornar alls kyns sendingar ok
konungligr drykkr ósparliga veittr öllum þeim mönnum, er
inni sátu> 'Dishes of all kinds were brought forth and kingly
drink given unstintingly to everyone who sat indoors'.
While <ór> may well be the right preposition here, I've
found only modern examples. However, the verb <snæða> 'to
eat, to take a meal' definitely takes the preposition <af>
in this context: 'Þorvalds þáttr víðförla' has <... sagði,
at eigi mundi verða síðan einn skutill svá vegliga skipaðr
sem þá, er iij svá voldugir konungar snæddu af einum diski>
'... said that a dish would not afterwards be so nobly
assigned as when three so powerful kings ate from one dish'.
I'd be inclined to play safe with the preposition by making
it <snæddum af gulldiskum>. Finally, you don't want the
plural of <purpurapell>. I might try:

Vér drukkum konunglig vín ok snæddum af gulldiskum ok
sváfum á purpurapelli.

> "Hví þú leifðir góðan stað þenna svá fljótt?"

The verb comes second here. However, I'm not at all sure
that <leifa> is the right verb here. Judging from the
instances of both verbs that I've seen, I suspect that
<yfirgefa> is a better choice. I've not noticed an exactly
parallel example in Old Norse, but I did dig up a couple in
the modern language. In the Icelandic Bible Hebrews 11:27
begins <Fyrir trú yfirgaf hann Egyptaland og óttaðist ekki
reiði konungsins, ...> 'For faith he left Egypt and did not
fear the king's anger, ...'. A publisher's blurb for a
novel includes the following sentence:

Hvers vegna yfirgaf hann konu sína og börn, blómlegt
fyrirtæki og trausta stöðu í Reykjavík?

Why did he leave his wife and children, a flourishing
business, and a secure position in Reykjavík?

The next question is whether <staðr> is really the right
noun. At best 'place' is rather colorless; I've a feeling
that <sællífi> 'life of enjoyment, luxury' comes closer to
your intended meaning.

How about:

Hví yfirgaftu sællífa þann svá fljótt?

> "Um kveldit konungrinn kom aptr í höll sína ok var
> allreiðr, er hann sá þetta."

Again, the verb comes second, and I'd replace <þetta> with
<þat>:

Um kveldit kom konungrinn aptr inn í höll sína ok var
allreiðr, er hann sá þat.

Brian