> Vigfús sonur Bjarnar Óttarssonar bjó í Drápuhlíð sem fyrr
> segir.
> Vigus, a son of Bjorn Ottarson's, lived in Drapulhid as
> told previously.
> Vigfus, son of Bjorn Ottar’s son, lived in Drapuhlid as
> was previously mentioned.
Vigfús, son of Björn Óttarsson, lived at Drápuhlíð, as was
said before.
> Hann átti Þorgerði Þorbeinisdóttur.
> He married Thorgerd, daughter of Thorbein.
> He was married to Thorgerd Thorbein’s daughter.
He married Þorgerð Þorbeinisdóttur.
> Hann var gildur bóndi og ódældarmaður mikill.
> He was a great man and a large overbearing man.
> He was a worthy farmer and a very overbearing man.
He was a worthy landowner and a very overbearing man.
I take <mikill> to be an intensifier, not a description of
his size.
> Með honum var á vist systursonur hans er Björn hét.
> With him was lodging his nephew who was named Bjorn.
> On a visit with him was his sister’s son who was named
> Bjorn.
Staying with him was his sister's son, who was called Björn.
> Hann var örorður maður og ógegn.
> He was a man hasty of speech and
> He was an outspoken man and unreasonable.
He was an outspoken man and unreasonable.
> Um haustið eftir Máhlíðingamál fundust stóðhross
> Þorbjarnar digra á fjalli og hafði hesturinn eigi haldið
> högum fyrir hesti Þórarins og hafði fennt hrossin og
> fundust öll dauð.
> During the next fall Mahlidingamal found Thorbjorn the
> stout's stud-horse on a mountain and the horse hadn't been
> considered to be Thorarin's horse and the horse had been
> covered with snow and found all dead.
> During the fall after the Mahlidinga case, Thorbjorn the
> thick’s stallion was found in the fells and the horse had
> not protected (his) pasture from Thorarinn’s horse and
> snow had covered the horses and all were found dead.
The fall after the Máhlíðing case [i.e., the proceedings
against Þórarin & Co.], the stud horse of Þorbjörn digri was
found on a mountain, and the stallion had not held the
pastures against Þórarin's stallion, and the horses had been
covered with snow and [were] all found dead.
Here what Barnes calls the <-sk> form functions as a
passive. <Högum> is dat. plur. of <hagi> 'pastures'; that
clause seems to mean that Þorbjörn's stallion had not
claimed the pastures in which it grazed as its own
territory. Gering suggests that they were public grazing
lands.
> Þetta sama haust áttu menn rétt fjölmenna í Tungu milli
> Laxá upp frá Helgafelli.
> This same autumn men had exactly a sheep gathering of many
> people in Tongue between Salmon-river upp from Helgafell.
> (?)
> That same fall, men had a sheep gathering of a great
> crowds of men in Tongue between Lax River up from
> Helgafell.
This same fall many people participated in a sheep-gathering
at Tunga between [the branches of the] Laxá up from
Helgafell.
<Milli> takes the genitive, and <Laxá> is the gen. plur.;
the gen. sing. would be <Laxár>. 'Up from' would be inland,
away from the shore; I don't have a map in my head, but
Gering says that in this case that would be south.
> Þangað fóru til réttar heimamenn Snorra goða.
> Chieftain Snorri's servants went to the sheep gathering.
> Priest Snorri’s house servants went thither to the sheep
> gathering.
Members of Snorri goði's household went thither to [the]
sheep-gathering.
> Var Már Hallvarðsson föðurbróðir Snorra fyrir þeim.
> Snorri's foster brother Mar Hallvardson was leading them.
> Mar Hallvard’s son, Snorri’s uncle led them.
Má Hallvarðsson, Snorri's foster brother, led them.
> Helgi hét sauðamaður hans.
> His shepherd was named Helgi.
> Helgi was the name of his shepherd.
His shepherd was called Helgi.
> Björn frændi Vigfúss lá á réttargarðinum og hafði
> fjallstöng í hendi.
> Bjorn, a kinsman of Vigfuss, attended the sheep-gathering
> area and had a fellman's staff in (his) hand.
> Bjorn, Vigfus’ kinsman, lay on the wall of the sheep fold
> and had a fellman’s staff in hand.
Björn, Vigfús's kinsman, lay on the sheepfold wall and had a
fellman's staff in [his] hand.
> Helgi dró sauði.
> Helgi dragged a sheep.
> Helgi gathered sheep.
Helgi pulled a sheep [from the fold -- presumably one of
Snorri's].
> Björn spurði hvað sauð það væri er hann dró.
> Bjorn asked what sheep that would be that he dragged.
> Bjorn asked what sheep those were which he gathered.
Björn asked what sheep that was that he drew [from the
fold].
> En er að var hugað þá var mark Vigfúss á sauðnum.
> And when it was attended to, then it was Vigfuss's sign on
> the sheep.
> And when (it) was looked at then Vigfus’ mark was on the
> sheep.
And when [it] was looked into, Vigfús's mark was on the
sheep.
> Björn mælti: "Slundasamlega dregur þú sauðina í dag Helgi."
> Bjorn said: " Slundasamlega(?) you drag the sheep today, Helgi."
> Bjorn spoke, “You catch the sheep sloppily today, Helgi.”
Björn said: 'You're doing a sloppy job of pulling the sheep
today, Helgi.'
<Slundsamliga> is in CV, glossed 'flabbily' with a question
mark. De Vries agrees: he glosses the corresponding
adjective 'schwerfällig, schlaff', which might be translated
'cumbersome, sluggish, limp, flabby'. This is apparently
based on words in modern Norwegian dialects. However,
Möbius, Altnordisches Glossar, glosses it 'in treuloser,
d.h. diebischer Weise', i.e., 'in faithless, i.e., thievish
fashion'. This isn't entirely an inference from the present
context: he cites Old Icelandic <slundi> 'servus infidus'
(i.e., untrustworthy slave or servant) and <slundr>
'perfidia' (perfidy). Unfortunately, I've not found them
elsewhere. In view of Björn's next words I tried to split
the difference.
> "Hættara mun yður það," segir Helgi, "er sitjið í afrétt
> manna."
> "More dangerous to you will that," says Helgi, "when you
> sit in people's common pasture."
> “More risky will it be for you,” says Helgi, “when you sit
> in people’s common pasture.”
'That will be more dangerous to you,' says Helgi, 'that
[you] sit in people's common pasture.'
> "Hvað mun þjófur þinn vita til þess," segir Björn og hljóp
> upp við og laust hann með stönginni svo að hann féll í
> óvit.
> "What will your thief know about that," says Bjorn and
> jumped up towards (him) and struck him with the staff so
> that he fell unconscious.
> “What will you, a thief, know of this,” says Bjorn and
> leapt up at that and struck him with the staff so that he
> fell unconscious.
'You thief, what will you know about that?' says Björn and
jumped up at [him] and struck him with the staff so that he
fell unconscious.
According to Gering, this use of possessive <þinn>, making
it literally 'your thief', is highly idiomatic, and <þjófr
þinn> is to be understood as <þú þjófr> 'you thief'.
> Og er Már sá þetta brá hann sverði og hjó til Bjarnar og
> kom á höndina upp við öxl og varð það mikið sár.
> And when Mar saw this, he drew a sword and struck at Bjorn
> and hit his arm up by the shoulder, and it became very
> wounded.
> And when Mar saw that he drew a sword and hewed at Bjorn
> and (the blow) came on the arm up by the shoulder and it
> was a serious wound.
And when Má saw this, he drew [his] sword and struck at
Björn and hit his ['the'] arm up by [the] shoulder, and that
was a great wound.
> Eftir það hljópu menn í tvo staði en sumir gengu í milli
> og skildu þá svo að eigi varð fleira til tíðinda þar.
> After that men jumped in two places and some went in
> between and separated them so that there was little in the
> way of happenings there.
> After that men ran in two places and some went between and
> parted them so that (there) not more news happened there.
After that men ran to form two groups, but some went between
[them] and parted them, so that no more happened there.
I think that this is similar to <skipta í tvá staði> 'to
divide into two parts': many of the bystanders took sides
and started to form up into two groups for a brawl.
> Um morguninn eftir reið Vigfús ofan til Helgafells og
> beiddi bóta fyrir vansa þenna en Snorri sagði að hann
> kveðst eigi mun gera þeirra atburða er þar höfðu orðið.
> During the next morning Vigfus rode down to Helgafell and
> asked for compensation for this injury but Snorri said
> that he didn't say for himself (that he) will make their
> event who had become there.
> During the next morning Vigfus rode down to Helgafell and
> demanded reparation for this disgrace, but Snorri said
> that he will not judge their occurrences which had
> happened there.
The next morning Vigfús rode down to Helgafell and asked for
compensation for this injury, but Snorri declared that he
[had?] said that he would not judge of the events that had
occurred there.
<Þeirra atburða> is a gen. plur.
> Þetta líkaði Vigfúsi illa og skildu þeir með hinum mesta
> styttingi.
> This little pleased Vigfus and they parted most coldly.
> (Z. styttingr - skilja með styttingi, to part coldly)
> Vigfuss was not pleased with this and they parted with the
> greatest coldness.
This pleased Vigfús little, and they parted with the
greatest coldness.
> Um vorið bjó Vigfús áverkamálið til Þórsnessþings en
> Snorri drepið til óhelgi við Björn og urðu þau málalok að
> Björn varð óheilagur af frumhlaupinu við Helga og fékk
> engar bætur fyrir áverkann en hann bar í fatla höndina
> jafnan síðan.
> During the spring, Vigfus prepared a case for an action on
> account of an injury at the Thorness assembly and/but
> Snorri the injury to the state of being outlawed from the
> assault against Helgi and got no atonement for injury and
> he carried his arm in a sling ever after.
> During the spring, Vigfus prepared the misdeed case for
> the Thor’s Ness Thing, but Snorri charged? Bjorn with
> outlawry and the end of the cases turned out that Bjorn
> was outlawed for personal assault and no compensation was
> given for the misdeed and he was afflicted with a disabled
> arm ever after.
In the spring Vigfús began a lawsuit for bodily injury at
[the] Þórsness þing, but Snorri prepared the prosecution
['blow'] of outlawry against Björn, and the result [plural
in ON] of the case was that Björn was outlawed for the
personal assault against Helgi and received no compensation
[plur. in ON] for the bodily injury, and he bore his ['the']
arm in a sling ever after.
<Drepið> is either the (neuter) past participle of <drepa>
or the neuter noun <drep> with the article, so we're missing
a finite verb here; the available one is <bjó> in the first
clause, and a citation in CV s.v. <úhelgi> confirms this
interpretation. I can't find any evidence for <búa> plus a
past participle, so I'm reading <drepið> as 'the smart, the
blow' (see CV) interpreted metaphorically.
Brian