Því voru nítján niðjar skaufhala
hunds jafningja heldr en tuttugu,
— þar sannaðiz forn fyrða mæli —
að oft verðr örgum eins vant á tög.
Því voru nítján niðjar skaufhala, jafningja hunds, heldr en tuttugu, að oft verðr örgum vant eins á tög; þar sannaðiz forn mæli fyrða.
It was for that reason that there were nineteen offspring of Tassel-tail, a dog’s equal, rather than twenty because the wicked one often lacks one from ten; there the old saying of men came true.
[7-8] oft verðr örgum vant eins á tög ‘the wicked one often lacks one from ten’: Guðbrandur Vigfússon (CPB II, 610) explains this as a proverb: ‘… nineteen is a favourite number in popular tales; a dangerous river has just taken ‘nineteen’ victims, and is waiting for the last; Mount Hecla has had ‘nineteen’ eruptions, and the like’. The ‘wicked one’ most likely refers to Satan here although örgum (nom. argr ‘wicked, cowardly’) could also be dat. pl. Amory (1973, 4) paraphrases this as ‘with cowards there is always one missing out of every ten men’.