Ungr var ek heima, fór ek einn saman,
opt í útveri,
marga myrkviðu.
Hvatki ek fann á minni götu, hræddumz ek aldri
flagða forynjur.
Ungr var ek heima, ek fór opt einn saman í útveri, marga myrkviðu. Ek hræddumz aldri forynjur flagða, hvatki ek fann á götu minni.
When I was young at home, I often roamed alone in the outlying fishing grounds, through many dark forests. I never feared the warnings of ogresses, whatever I found on my path.
[5] Hvatki: hvar 471
[5] hvatki ek fann á minni götu ‘whatever I found on my path’: The mss 343a (‘kvatki’) and 340ˣ have the reading hvatki ‘whatever’, 471 reads hvar ‘everywhere’. Several other mss omit the line entirely. In the version of the stanza presented in them the words marga myrkviða must be regarded as a full-line without a caesura and part of the preceding construction: fór (ek) einn saman | út í útveri, | marga myrkviða ‘I roamed alone out in the outlying fishing grounds, (through) many dark forests’. Some u-stem nouns are also declined like a-stems (ANG §395), hence myrkviða could be regarded as the acc. pl. of the cpd myrkviðr m., although Noreen (ANG) does not mention viðr as one of the u-stem nouns which are declined like a-stems.