Villir vísdóm allan;
veldr því karl í feldi.
Villir allan vísdóm; karl í feldi veldr því.
He confuses all wisdom; the man in the cloak causes that.
[2] feldi: feldinum all
[2] karl í feldi ‘the man in the cloak’: This could be a veiled reference to Óðinn, who frequently appears in a cloak when in disguise (e.g. in Grí 1 and prose; NK 57) and is often referred to as karl ‘(old) man’ (see Hárb 2, Reg 18/5, NK 78, 178, and LP: karl 2). If so, the sense would be that the devil (or his avatar, the heathen god) causes the men’s drunken inability to perform the Christian ritual.