Svá skaut gegn í gǫgnum
garð steinfarinn barða
— sá vas gnýstœrir geira
gunnar hæfr — sem næfrar.
Gegn skaut í gǫgnum steinfarinn garð barða svá sem næfrar; sá geira gnýstœrir vas hæfr gunnar.
The capable one shot through the painted fence of the ship [SHIELD] as though [it were] birch-bark; that increaser of the din of spears [(lit. ‘din-increaser of spears’) BATTLE > WARRIOR] was able in battle.
[4] hæfr: so W, A, æfr R, C, ‘hæ[…]r’ U
[4] hæfr ‘able’: So W, U, A, and adopted in Skj B and Skald. This is the reading of the majority of the ms. witnesses, and the vowel is secured by internal rhyme (for the etymology of hæfr, see AEW: hæfr); cf. also the semantically parallel adj. gegn ‘the capable one’ (l. 1). SnE 1848-87 and SnE 1998 retain the R, C reading æfr ‘furious’, which is certainly possible, although the etymological stem vowel in that adj. is œ rather than æ (see AEW: œfr).