At 7:53:35 AM on Saturday, September 18, 2010, Fred and
Grace Hatton wrote:

> Þegar er hann sagði þessi orð, kom sendiboði til dura
> húss.

> As soon as (at the same moment as?)

Yes, as soon as.

> he said these words a messenger came to the house door.

Doors: <dura> is genitive plural.

> Sendiboði segir, at sá var maðr hár, "Ok var hann í blárri
> kápu ok blám hjálmi, ok var ein hönd honum silfrgör."

> (The) messenger says, that that man was tall,

A little out of order: <hár> modifies <maðr>, but <sá> is
acting as a pronoun, so it's 'that that/it was a tall man'.

> "An he was in a blue/black cloak and blue/black helmet,
> and one of his hands was silver."

More specifically, 'made of silver' (and not just silver in
color).

> Fyrir hví dveldisk þú?
> Why have you stayed?

<Dveldisk> is a past subjunctive, so it's probably more like
'Why would you stay?'

> "Þú ert aldrigi aptr farin til ríkis þíns," segir
> Víga-Óbívan enn, ...

> "You have never gone back to your kingdom," says Slayer
> Obiwan, ...

Don't forget <enn> 'yet, still, in addition'; in this
context <segir ... enn> is more or less 'continues'.

> ok ek vænti eigi þess, at vér komim til Írlands árla."
> and I do not hope for this that we come to Ireland early."

Here I think that 'expect' is a better choice than 'hope',
and it looks to me as if Jackson is using <árla> to mean
something like 'soon, in the near future': V-Ó doesn't
expect the queen to consent to return to Ireland any time
soon. (I don't know whether this use of <árla> actually has
any precedent in the sagas, but I don't think that I've seen
it before.)

Brian