At 8:05:41 PM on Sunday, March 27, 2011, startrekdataandworf
wrote:

> 1. Hvarf Brynhildar konungsdóttur

> The Disappearance of Princess Brynhild

> Hertryggur hefir konungr heitit. Hann réð fyrir austr í
> Rússía. Þat er mikit land ok fjölbyggt ok liggr milli
> Húnalands ok Garðaríkis. Hann var kvángaðr. Hann átti tvær
> dætr. Hét hvártveggi Hildr. Þær váru vænar ok vel skapi
> farnar ok váru sæmiliga upp fæddar. Konungr unni mikit
> dætrum sínum.

> Hertrik is a king who rules over in the east in Russia.
> His land is great and thickly-peoples and lies between
> Hunalands

Just Hunaland: the <-s> of <Húnalands> is the genitive case
ending required by <milli>. Or you could translate it
completely as 'Hunland'.

> and Gardariki. He was married and he had two daughters.
> They were each named Hild. They were fair to behold and of
> good state of mind and were raised honourably.

<Farnar> is the feminine plural of the past participle
<farinn>; <vel skapi farnar> is equivalent to <vel
skapfarnar> 'good-tempered'. (Literally it's something
like 'well conditioned in respect of disposition', with
<skapi> as a so-called dative of respect.) 'Honorably' is a
very possible translation of <sœmiliga>, but I suspect that
the sense here is more like 'fittingly', 'in a seemly
manner'.

> The king bestowed much upon his daughters.

<Unni> is simply 'loved', past tense of <unna>: '[The] king
greatly loved his daughters'.

> Einn tíma bar þat til tíðenda, at konungr fór á
> dýraveiðar, en in eldri Hildr á hnotskóg ok konur hennar.
> Hún var kölluð Brynhildr. Kom þat til þess, at hún vandist
> við riddara íþróttir.

> When the time came, the king went deer-hunting,

<Bera til tíðenda> is 'to happen, to occur': 'One time it
happened that the king went deer-hunting'.

> and the elder Hild went a-nutting with her women. She was
> called Brynhild. Come that to this, after she became
> accustomed to the feat of riding.

'That came [about] for this [reason], that she was
accustomed to [the] skills of knights'. <Riddara> is the
genitive plural of <riddari> 'a horseman; a knight'; here
it's probably 'knights', as otherwise I don't see why it
would justify the name. A translation that gets the
intended idea across might be 'This was because she had and
used the knights' skills'.

> Nú sem þær búast heim ór skóginum, kemr eitt mikit dýr,
> þat er hjasi heitir, fram at þeim. Þat var mikit vexti ok
> grimmt. Þat á lengstan aldr af dýrum, ok er þat fornmæli,
> at sá, sem gamall er, sé aldraðr sem einn hjasi. Þat er
> skapt sem glatúnshundr ok hefir eyru svá stór, at þau nema
> jörð. En er þær sá dýrit, hljóp síns vegar hver, en dýrit
> greip konungsdóttur ok hljóp í skóginn, en konurnar sögðu
> heim þessi tíðendi. Varð konungr mjök hryggr ok lætr
> leita, ok finnst hún hvergi. Kemr engi sá, at honum kunni
> þar til at segja. Dofnar hér yfir sem annat, ok líðr til
> jóla.

> Now as they get ready home-wards out of the wood,

Old Norse often omits verbs when they can easily be supplied
by the reader, and this is an example: it's to be understood
as <Nú sem þær búast at fara heim ór skóginum> 'Now as they
get ready to go home from the wood'.

> comes one large hjasi, a fabulous beast, forward at them.
> That was fully grown and stern.

<Vexti> is the dative of <vöxtr>, which here has the sense
'size, stature'; <mikit vexti> is 'great of stature'.
<Grimmt> here is probably 'ferocious, savage'.

> *Of the long lifespan of beasts, and which that of old
> talk, to saw, as old which, be elderly as one hjasi.*

Here <á> is the 3rd person singular present tense of <eiga>
'to have', and <lengstan> is the superlative: 'That has
[the] longest lifespan of [all] beasts, and it is an old saw
[i.e., it's proverbial] that he who is old is "as old as a
hjasi"'.

> That which appears as a glatunshundr and has ears thus
> great, that they touch the earth.

<Glatúnshundr> probably carries a sense something like
'ravenous, demonic hound'. 'It is shaped like a
glatúns-hound and ears so large that they touch the ground.'

> And when they saw the beast, they ran upon their path,

<Hver> is the subject of <hljóp síns vegar hver>: 'each ran
his [own] way', i.e., they scattered in all directions.

> and the beast clutched the princess and leaped into the
> wood, *and the women said homewards this time.*

<Þessi tíðendi> is 'these tidings': the women reported what
had happened when they got home.

> The king was very sad and looks for her, and finds her
> nowhere.

<Láta leita> is 'causes to search': 'and has [her] searched
for'. <Finnst> has a passive sense here: 'and she is found
nowhere'.

> Comes no one there, *for him understands there to for
> says.

<Kunna> with an infinitive is 'to be able to'. Here it's
subjunctive: 'No such one comes as could tell him thereof',
i.e., who could give him any information about his
daughter's whereabouts.

> Became benumbed here over as another, and passes til
> yule.*

Zoëga s.v. <dofi> has a subsidiarly entry for the verb
<dofna>, in which he notes the impersonal construction
<dofnar yfir e-u> 'the matter begins to die down'. <Líðr
til jóla> is another impersonal construction, referring
to the passage of time: '[It] begins to die down here like
any other [matter], and [time] passes till yule'.

Brian