‘Es mér ór heimi hǫlða vánir
gǫfugra nǫkkurra, svá es mér glatt hjarta.’
‘Es mér vánir nǫkkurra gǫfugra hǫlða ór heimi, svá es hjarta mér glatt.’
‘I expect certain glorious men from the world [of the living], so my heart is glad.’
[1-2] es mér vánir ‘I expect’: Lit. ‘[there] is to me expectations’. The sg. verb disagrees with the pl. subject vánir ‘expectations’, but such lack of concord is not uncommon in skaldic poetry, and in prose when the verb precedes its subject (NS §66 Anm. 3). Emendation to eru ‘are’ (so Árni Magnússon in 761bˣ; Möbius 1860; Ulset 1975, 41) is therefore unnecessary.