> Síðan ríður Bolli suður til Borgarfjarðar og til Hvítár og
> kaupir skip það hálft að þeim mönnum er það áttu.
> Then Bolli rides south to Borgarfjardar and to White-River
> and buys half the ship that the men who owned it.
> Afterwards Bolli rides south to Borgar Fjords and to White
> River and buys a ship on halves that was owned by those
> men.
> After-that Bolli rides south to Borgarfjörð and to Hvítá
> (White-River) and buys that half (share of the) ship from
> those persons (men) who owned that.
Rob, Grace: this is <kaupa e-t at e-m> 'to buy something
from someone'. This is the ship in which Þorleik owned a
half share and in which he returned to Iceland at the end of
Chap. 70.
> Eiga þeir bræður þá saman skipið.
> The brothers then have the same ship.
> Then those brothers own the same ship.
> Those brothers then had (owned) the (whole) ship together
> (ie own it jointly).
Present tense; <eiga> is the modern form of ON <eiga>, 3rd
plur. pres. indic.
> Þykir mér það mikil nauð og ófrelsi.
> It seems to me a great need and tyranny. (??)
> It seems to me very needy and a deprivation of freedom.
> That seems to me a great distress (hardship,
> embuggerance?) and tyranny (unnecessary imposition?).
Baetke glosses the relevant sense 'Not, Bedrängnis,
Schwierigkeit'; that covers 'distress, hardship, affliction,
trouble', more or less. 'Hardship' seems a bit strong for
the context; I suspect that in this case ‘a great nuisance’
would be a reasonable translation of <mikil nauð>. I think
that <ófrelsi> has here a sense somewhere between
'constraint' and 'oppression'; 'imposition' looks pretty
good to me.
> Er mér sagt að konungur mun koma norður í vor en ef hann
> kæmi eigi þá mun eg ekki letja að við förum á hans fund.”
> It is said to me that (the) king will come north in
> spring, but if he doesn’t came, then I will not permit
> that we go to meet him.”
> I am told that the king will come north in the spring and
> if he doesn’t come then I will give in that we go to a
> meeting with him.’
> (It) is said to me (ie I have heard) that (the) king will
> come north in (the) spring (vár) but if he should-not-come
> then I will not hold-back (letja, Z1) that we travel to a
> meeting of (ie to see) him.”
Rob: ON <letja> is kin to the English noun <let> 'stoppage,
obstruction' in ‘without let or hindrance’ (which is also
the <let> in tennis), from Old English <lettan> 'to hinder,
delay, impede'; the ON verb that is kin to English <let>
'allow' is <láta>.
> Þar eftir fór annað örlæti hans og stórmennska.
> Thereafter his generosity and greatness went next.
> There after his open-handedness and greatness.
> There after went other (?) his liberality and munificence.
I think that this is <fara eptir e-u> 'to conform to
something': ‘His other liberality and munificence conformed
to that’. In other words, his was just as open-handed in
his other dealings.
Brian