Gerðak veig of virða
víðis illrar tíðar
(þat vann ek, meðan aðrir)
ǫrr Váfaðar (svôfu).
Komkat þess, þars þótti,
þingsættis, fé betra
— meiðr sparir hodd við hróðri
hverr — en skald it verra.
Illrar tíðar gerðak ǫrr veig Váfaðar of virða víðis; vann ek þat, meðan aðrir svôfu. Komkat þess þingsættis, þars fé þótti betra en skald it verra; hverr meiðr sparir hodd við hróðri.
At an unfortunate time I composed, eager, strong drink of Váfuðr <= Óðinn> [POETRY] about men of the ocean [SEAFARERS]; I did that while others slept. I have not come to that assembly-reconciler [RULER] where money seemed better but the poet worse; each tree [man] withholds treasure from praise poetry.
[2] víðis ‘of the ocean’: This, the Jvs A-redaction reading (291 and Flat) from víðir ‘ocean, sea’, is retained here as the reading of the main ms. and the lectio difficilior. It requires an otherwise unprecedented kenning type, virða víðis ‘men of the ocean’, which Ólafur Halldórsson (Jvs 1969, 215) tentatively construes to mean ‘seafarers’. In the context of this stanza, however, one would expect a kenning for Hákon jarl, which the 510, M reading vǫrð virða ‘guardian of men [RULER]’ would provide.