Thanks, Brian! I thought "of" was an alternate spelling of "af". Small
wonder I didn't get anywhere with it.
Grace

> langfaðir hans,
> his grandfather,

<Langfaðir> is actually any male ancestor on the father's
side.

> "Þú ert orðinn of nær konungi, ok Jeðifjarðamenn trúa eigi
> á hann.

> "You have become ? near (the) king and Jedi Firth men do
> not trust him.

This is the adverb <of> 'too', the fourth <of> entry in
Zoëga: <of nær> is 'too near'.

> "Heldr eigi hefi ek gleymt, at vit unnum eið Kvæggani
> deyjanda, at vit hefnim hans.

> "I have rather not forgotten that we performed an oath
> (over the) dying Kvaeggan, that we avenge him.

I think that <heldr> here actually has the sense of <né
heldr> 'neither'. Assuming that <vinna eið> follows the
same syntax as <sverja eið>, the dative <Kvæggani> marks the
person to whom the oath is sworn: 'Neither have I forgotten
that we swore an oath to [the] dying Kvæggan ...'.

> En ek em bundinn nú á hendi konungi.
> But I am bound now ?? to (the) king.

See Zoëga s.v. <binda> (5): <bindask á hendi konungim> 'to
bind oneself to serve a king'. Here we have a passive
rather than the <-sk> form, but it's clearly the same idiom:
'But I am now bound to serve the king', i.e., I'm now the
king's retainer.

Brian


Fred and Grace Hatton
Hawley Pa