Skotit frák skeptiflettum
skjótt ok mǫrgu spjóti,
— brôð fekk hrafn — þars hôðum
hjaldr, á breiða skjǫldu.
Neyttu mest sem môttu
menn at vápna sennu,
baugs en barðir lôgu
bǫrvar, grjóts ok ǫrva.
Frák skeptiflettum ok mǫrgu spjóti skotit skjótt á breiða skjǫldu, þars hôðum hjaldr; hrafn fekk brôð. Menn neyttu, sem môttu mest, grjóts ok ǫrva at sennu vápna, en bǫrvar baugs lôgu barðir.
I have learned that shafted javelins and many a spear were shot swiftly onto broad shields, where we joined battle; the raven got meat. Men made the best use they could of stones and arrows in the slander-match of weapons [BATTLE], and trees of the ring [MEN] lay beaten down.
[1] skeptiflettum: flettiskeftum J2ˣ
[1] skeptiflettum ‘shafted javelins’: This word, unique to this context, seems to be equivalent to flettiskepta (the reading of J2ˣ), and to refer to throwing-weapons with shafts (skepti n. ‘shaft’), but their exact nature is disputed. The shaft may be cloven (flett sundur, ÍF 27, 379 n. 1), with the barbed head or some other attachment set in, as seemingly envisaged in Fritzner: flettiskepta and LP: skeptifletta, and in ÍF 27, 379 n. 1. Falk suggested that the head may anciently have been of stone (flint, 1914, 76-7), and cf. AEW: fletta, which derives fletta from Proto-Scandinavian *flinta-. CVC on the other hand prints skeptiflétta and associates the second element with the verb flétta ‘braid’ and flétta f. ‘braid, string’, suggesting ‘a kind of shaft with a cord’.