Ek hef óðar lokri,
ǫlstafna, þér skafna,
væn mǫrk, — skala verki
vandr — stefknarrar branda.
Ek hef skafna þér branda stefknarrar lokri óðar, væn mǫrk ǫlstafna; verki skala vandr.
I have smoothed the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF] for you with the plane of poetry [TONGUE], beautiful forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]; the poem should not be difficult.
[2, 3] mǫrk ǫlstafna ‘forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]’: Meissner (Meissner 410) holds that a collective noun meaning ‘forest’, in place of a tree-name, could be used as the base-word in a woman-kenning. However, mǫrk ‘forest’ could also be interpreted as a variation of the base-word ‘land’, which is also frequently found in woman-kennings (NN §447A). ‘Prows’ here is to be understood as pars pro toto for ‘ship’ (Meissner 434), and ‘ale-ships’ is a kenning for ‘drinking horns’ (cf. ǫlstafns ‘of the ale-prow’ in KormǪ Lv 18/6V (Korm 19)).