Anon Liðs 2I/7 — vart ‘scarcely’
Margr ferr Ullr í illan
oddsennu dag þenna
frár, þars fœddir órum,
fornan serk, ok bornir.
Enn á enskra manna
ǫlum gjóð Hnikars blóði;
vart mun skald í skyrtu
skreiðask hamri samða.
Margr frár Ullr oddsennu ferr þenna dag í illan fornan serk, þars órum fœddir ok bornir. Enn ǫlum gjóð Hnikars á blóði enskra manna; skald mun vart skreiðask í skyrtu samða hamri.
Many a fierce Ullr <god> of the point-quarrel [BATTLE > WARRIOR] gets this day into the foul old shirt in which we were born and brought up [lit. brought up and born]. Once again let us nourish the osprey of Hnikarr <= Óðinn> [RAVEN] on the blood of English men; the skald will scarcely creep into a shirt put together by the hammer.
readings
[7] vart: ‘ært’ JÓ, ‘ørt’ 20dˣ, ‘ort’ 873ˣ, 41ˣ
notes
[7] vart ‘scarcely’: (a) The reading vart has support in both the Óláfr and the Knútr traditions. If the translation of ll. 7-8 above is correct, with vart as the adv. ‘scarcely’, the lines mean that the men fight without armour, and hence support interpretation (b) in the Note to ll. 1, 3, 4. (b) Alternatively, vart skald could be read as ‘the cautious skald’ who does put on armour. (c) Skj B, Skald and ÍF 35 print ǫrt ‘bold’ but this variant is restricted to two or possibly three Knýtl mss and could be explained as a scribal emendation.