At 12:29:18 PM on Sunday, March 20, 2011,
startrekdataandworf wrote:

>> Hann átti Sigríði ina stórráðu ok skildi við hana sakir
>> óhægenda skapsmuna hennar, því at hún var kvenna
>> stríðlyndust um allt þat, er við bar.

>> He was married to Sigrid the Haughty, and divorced her on
>> account of her difficult character - because she was
>> strong-tempered in everything that she endured[?].

<Bera við> is 'to happen'; see Zoëga s.v. <bera> II.3.

>> Í þann tíma réð Hákon jarl fyrir Noregi ok átti margt
>> barna, en frá einni hans dóttur munu vér nokkut segja,
>> þeiri er Auðr hét.

>> In that time Earl Hakon ruled over Norway and had many
>> children, but concerning one of his daughters might we
>> say something. She was called Audr.

<Er> functions here as a relative pronoun referring to
<þeiri>, which in turn refers to <einni>. <Munu> functions
as a simple auxiliary: '... but we will say something about
one of his daughters, the one who was called Auð.' The
implication, I think, is that although he had many children,
only the one daughter will be of interest here.

>> Litlu síðar bað hennar einn fylkiskonungr austan ór
>> Garðaríki, ok sýndist konungi at gifta honum meyna, ok
>> fór hún með honum austr í Garðaríki.

>> A little later a petty king from Gardariki in the East
>> asked, and the king seemed[?] to give the girl to him,
>> and she travelled with him eastward into Gardariki.

<Biðja> with a genitive object is 'to ask/beg for': 'A
little later a petty king from Garðaríki in the east asked
for her [in marriage]'. <E-m sýnist e-t> is 'one thinks
something fit', with the person in the dative; here it's
'and [the] king saw fit to give him the maid [in marriage].

>> Nokkuru síðar kom Áki þar á óvart ok drap konunginn, en
>> hafði í burt með sér konungs dóttur ok heim í Svíþjóð ok
>> gerir brúðkaup til hennar.

>> Sometime later, Aki was surprised and killed the king,
>> but still went away with the king's daughter and, home in
>> Sweden, had her wedding.

<Áki> is the subject of <kom>; <koma e-m á óvart> is 'to
come upon someone unawares' (see Zoëga s.v. <úvarr>): 'Áki
came there by surprise and killed the king'. <En> isn't
'but' here; it just marks the continuation of the narrative
and is probably best translated 'and'. <Hafa> here is 'to
bring, to carry' (see Zoëga s.v. <hafa> (6)): 'and carried
[the] king's daughter away with him and home to Sweden and
married her'.

>> At þessu ráði bundust átta höfðingjar með Áka ok sitja
>> þar um hríð undir reiði konungs, því at konungr vildi
>> ekki berjast við þá eða gera svá mikit mannspell innan
>> lands á sínum mönnum.

>> After this eight chieftains entered with Aki and remained
>> there below the angry king because the king does not want
>> to fight and see such great loss of life upon his own men
>> within the land.

<Bundust ... með Áka> should probably be understood as
'entered into a compact with Áki'. It's modified by <at
þessu ráði>, in which <ráð> seems to be 'resolved action,
plan': 'Eight chieftains entered into a compact with Áki in
this action [i.e., they supported him] and sit [present
tense] there for a while under [the] king's wrath, for [the]
king does not want to fight with them or to cause such great
loss of life to his own people within [the] land'.

>> Þau Áki áttu son, er Eymundr hét.
>> Aki had a son and his name was Eymund.

Note that <þau> is 'they'; the meaning is that 'they, Áki
[and his wife] had a son, who was called Eymund'.

>> Konungr tók því vel, ok nú, er svá var komit, biðr Eiríkr
>> konungr Auðar, dóttur Hákonar jarls ór Noregi.

>> King took this well, but now, which in this way occurred,
>> King Eric asked Audr, daughter of Earl Hakon of Norway.

<Ok nú, er svá var komit> is literally 'and now, when such
was come [to pass]'; that is, it's 'and now, when this [the
reconciliation] had occurred'. <Auðar> is the genitive of
<Auðr>, so it's the object of <biðr>: 'King Eirík asks for
Auð, daughter of Jarl Hákon of Norway, [in marriage]'.

> Var þeim málum vel svarat,
> Happened that period of time readily answer

'This suit was well answered', meaning that Hákon agreed to
let Eirík marry Auð.

> ok lét jarl sér þó þykkja betra, ef hann léti eigi nauðmág
> sinn sitja jafnhátt sér í Svíþjóð.

> and left earl and yet seem to improve if he had not made
> himself son-in-law to sit so high in Sweden.

This is a fairly tricky bit. The subject of <lét> is
<jarl>, and the sense is 'to say, to express' (sense (10) in
Zoëga): 'and the jarl said of himself nevertheless to think
[it] better', or, in real English, 'and the jarl
nevertheless said that he thought it better'. The rest is
'if he [= Eirík] had not let his son-in-law-by-force [= Áki]
sit as high as himself [= Eirík] in Sweden.

> Nú var konunni heitit ok ákveðin brullaupsstefna,

> Now stayed the woman commanded and decided wedding
> meeting,

Here context requires that <heitit> be 'promised', and
<ákveðit> is the neuter of <ákveðinn>: 'now the woman was
promised and the wedding meeting appointed'.

> ok nú fara orð af nýju í millum þeira Áka ok konungs,
> and now spread word anew between Aki and this king,

Here I think that <orð> should be understood as 'messages';
'and now messages travel again between Áki and [the] king'.
(You can tell that <orð> is plural, because <fara> is
plural.) <Í millum þeira Áka ok konungs> is literally
'between them Áki and king', but in English it's more
natural to omit any explicit translation of <þeira>.

> ok býðr Áki konungi sjálfdæmi fyrir utan sektir,

> and offer king Aki the right to judge in one's own case
> against outside penalty

<Áki> is nominative and <konungi> is dative, so <Áki> must
be the subject of <býðr> 'offers' and <konungi> the
recipient of the offer: 'and Áki offers the king the right
to judge in his own case, outside of forfeiture of goods and
outlawry'. That is, he's offering to let the king set his
own terms for the reconciliation, up to but not including
forfeiture of goods and outlawry (the maximum possible
penalty).

> ok sættast at því.
> and to be reconciled thereafter.

<Sættast> is 'to come to terms, to reach agreement': 'and
they reach agreement on that'.

> Konungr býst nú við brúðkaupi sínu
> King got ready now for his wedding feast

Present tense: 'gets ready'

> ok býðr til höfðingjum innan lands
> and offers to chieftains within land

Here <býðr> is 'invites', and <til> is a sort of adverbial
auxiliary, something like the separable part of a German
separable verb: <bjóða til> 'to invite to (something)', but
the 'something' need not be specified. I make it 'and
invites [the] chieftains within [the] land'.

> ok nefnir fyrstan til Áka, mág sinn, ok þá átta höfðingja,
> er honum fylgdu.

> and names the first for Aki, his brother-in-law, and then
> eight chieftains followed him.

Here I take <þá> to be the demonstrative pronoun in the
accusative plural masculine, 'those/the'. The <til> is
again a bit of a troublemaker; I interpret this as 'and
names first [there]to Áki, his son-in-law, and those
eight chieftains who followed him'. In other words, when he
invited the chieftains, he named Áki and his eight allies
first among them.

Brian