Examples in this translation of different spellings are, for instance, Tunsberg and Tønsberg, and the name of the Bishop of Holar, Gottskalk or Gotskalk. Both spellings are used. At one point the Swedish Natt och Dag is in italics because it is such an unusual family name; it literally means "Night and Day". The name of the estate of the famous Knights on Finnøy in Ryfylke is variously spelled Hesby and Hestbø.
Some words which are italicized are explained in the context of the translation so are not included here.
While Harald Winge was extremely helpful in explaining some of these terms, again I take complete responsibility for these explanations.
* = plural
gard/*garder is sometimes translated as "farm". In this translation "estate" is used. The reason is related to the meaning of the word bonde for which "farmer" does not seem to be an appropriate translation.
bonde/*bønder (bönder in Swedish) is sometimes translated as "farmer" so the original is used.
In A History of Norway, Karen Larsen describes a bonde as "a free landowning (person) generally of considerable property and prestige". A storbonde is a wealthy bonde who owned a great deal of property. In his History of the Norwegian People, writing about Norway in the 1300s, Knut Gjerset says,
The distribution of land according to the law of odel, and the comparative weakness of the aristocracy insured the people against oppression, and maintained a large class of freeholders (bønder) who continued to be the mainstay of the nation, and the custodians of the national traditions and spirit of liberty.
husmannsplassar is a term used only once in Kirkeby's book. It means the place where a husman and his family lived. A couple of centuries after the events of this book husmannsplassar came into being. The modern words for husmenn are cotters and crofters but these are terms which are better known in England than in America. Husmenn were not renters or tenant farmers as is often maintained but were people whom the owner of the estate provided with small houses and partial sustenance in return for work on the estate. Husmenn were the underclass. In the 1400s, as Kirkeby states, there were no husmannsplassar.
bot og betring -- Although bot usually means a fine, this expression means "a promise to reform".
drottsete was originally the title of the official among the king's followers who had the responsibility for the royal household but later it was the highest official office a man could hold in the nation. He functioned as a regent when the ruling head was underage or during the Union with Denmark and Sweden when the King was absent. The first who had the title of Drottsete in Norway was Erling Vidkunsson from 1323-32 and the last was Sigurd Jonsson who was appointed in 1439. One of Gråtopp's ancestors, Knight Ivar Ogmundsson Rova from Hesby of Finnøy in Ryfylke was a contemporary and colleague of Erling Vidkunsson. According to Norges Historie, Ivar served as Drottsete in the 1330s. A modern word for Drottsete is Senescha1.
hustru/fru/jomfru were terms used for women of the noble class. The inclination is to translate them as "lady" and in the case of jomfru, "miss, young lady, or maiden". In his notes at the end of the book, Kirkeby makes a distinction between hustru and fru by stating that the former title is used by the wife of a squire and the latter by the wife of a knight. Since it is not known what modern day words should be used for those terms used in the 1400s, the Norwegian words are retained.
lagmann/*lagmenn -- Lagmenn were originally those who gave information about what the law said. From being a law-knowledgeable man, the lagmann position developed into the role of a judge who was one of the king's officials.
prestebord/*presteborda -- Priests did not own the estate on which they lived. Prestebordmeans all the attached property which belonged to a specific priest's position in a parish. The income from the estate provided him with an important part of his income; in addition he received offerings and administrative fees. The prestebord consisted of the estate on which the priest lived plus usually some other estates of various sizes from which he also received income. The priest may also have owned other property privately but he did not own the prestebord itself.
Sira is the title used by priests in that era.
skipreide/*skipreida -- A skipreide originally was an area which was expected to support one warship. Each skipreide was supposed to provide a warship of a certain size, sufficiently manned and equipped and with enough food for two months whenever there was a war or when a war was imminent. The term could be translated "naval district" but that would not give the richly historic meaning which is conveyed by the term skipreide.
tegn og fredkjøp -- The Old Norse word þegn may be written "thegn" in English. In the 1400s and later it was written "tegn" in Norwegian but it is entirely different from the modern Norwegian word "tegn" which means "sign". A þegn or thegn is a "subject" as in "a subject of the King". The legal term tegn og fredkjøp means the fine which a man who was guilty of manslaughter had to pay the King as (1) a compensation to the King for the loss of a subject and/or to the family of the victim who had been killed in a manslaughter case and (2) the payment for legal protection until the case was investigated. This official definition seems to differ somewhat from that which Kirkeby presents in that he contends that the King received no remuneration.
ættleie/ætleidde -- present and past tense -- the term used to describe the legal action taken by priests and/or their mistresses to "adopt" their sons and daughters so that they could become their heirs.
ålmugen -- My insistence on constantly translating this word as "common people" is because of a desire to emphasize the social distinction between the nobility and the other people which was important in the 1300s and 1400s.
It is not possible to translate the following terms of land, money or other measurements because their value varied from one place to another and from one period of time to another - markebol, mark or merk, øyresbol, skippund, kyrlag, laupsland, forngild, lodd, tunne, mæle or*mæler, hud or*huder, pund.
Readers may not be familiar with the episcopal system, that is, church government by bishops. bispedømme in English is "diocese" which is spelled the same way in both the singular and the plural but is pronounced "dio-cis" and "dio-ceese" respectively. Prosti is a division of a diocese and is translated "deanery". The head of the deanery is a prost or "dean".
Høvedsmann is translated "castellan" and for that English word there is no plural so it is said of Svarte Jøns and Olav Bukk that they shared a castellany.