Höfðum lét of hrundit
hundmörgum gramr undir,
at feigum bör fólka
fingi eldr yfir syngja.
Hvat skyli beð enn betra
böðheggr und sik leggja?
Olli d*ýrr við orðstír
allvaldr jö*furs falli.
Gramr lét hundmörgum höfðum of hrundit undir, at eldr fingi syngja yfir feigum bör fólka. Hvat skyli böðheggr leggja und sik enn betra beð? D*ýrr allvaldr olli falli jö*furs við orðstír.
The leader allowed a great many heads to be thrust under him, so that fire would have a chance to sing over the doomed tree of battles [WARRIOR]. How could a battle-tree [WARRIOR] place beneath himself an even better bed? The mighty ruler caused a prince’s death with renown.
[2] hund‑: hodd 1824b
[2] hundmörgum ‘a great many’: Örnólfur Thorsson (Ragn 1985) treats the two-word reading of the ms. (hodd mörgum) as a cpd word hoddmörgum. This reading attributes to hodd ‘hoard, treasure’ the same meaning as hund-, though there is no support in the poetic corpus for such a sense. All other eds emend to hundmörgum, i.e. dat. pl. of hundmargr ‘very many’, a word which is well attested elsewhere in poetry (LP: hundmargr), and which, with its first element hund-, probably related to hundrað ‘hundred’ (ÍO: 1 hund-; cf. CVC: hundrað), is certainly appropriate in the context. This element provides the line with aðalhending.