Bölvat er okkr, bróðir; bani em ek þinn orðinn;
þat mun æ uppi; illr er dómr norna!
Bölvat er okkr, bróðir; ek em orðinn bani þinn; þat mun æ uppi; dómr norna er illr!
We are cursed, brother; I have become your slayer; that will always be remembered; the judgement of the norns is evil!
[4] norna: norna corrected from ‘[…]rna’ (struck through) in another hand R715ˣ
[4] norna ‘of the norns’: The norns are supernatural females representing fate or destiny in Old Norse mythology; cf. Hamð 30/5-6 (NK 274) qveld lifir maðr ecci | eptir qvið norna ‘a person doesn’t live for a night after the norns’ decree’. They need not always signify ill fate, as they do in the present stanza: Gylf (SnE 2005, 18) explains that there are both malevolent norns, who deal out unfortunate lives, and good norns, who shape good lives.