Gjǫld hefk marka
malmdyns fyr hlyn
framm fimm tega
forvíst borit,
þeiras veitti
víghagr fyr brag
mér morðstœrir,
mannbaldr es ek fann.
Hefk forvíst borit framm fyr hlyn malmdyns gjǫld fimm tega marka, þeiras víghagr morðstœrir veitti mér fyr brag, es ek fann mannbaldr.
I have most certainly brought forward before the maple of metal-din [BATTLE > WARRIOR] repayment for the fifty marks which the slaying-skilled battle-increaser [WARRIOR] gave me for a poem, when I met the outstanding man.
[8] mannbaldr (m. acc. sg.) ‘the outstanding man’: Lit. perhaps ‘human hero’ or ‘hero of a man’, as also in SnSt Ht 36/6III. Baldr is here taken as a common noun cognate with OE bealdor ‘hero, lord’ (cf. AEW: baldr 2), and the usage may be influenced by OE (see Kock, NN §787; Hofmann 1955, 76, 94). By contrast Finnur Jónsson (Skj B; LP: mann-Baldr) assumes that this is the name of the god, giving mann-Baldr with the sense ‘a Baldr among men’.