Þás ræfrvita Reifnis
rauðk fyr Svǫlð til auðar;
herfylgins bark Hǫlga
haugþak saman baugum.
Þás rauðk Reifnis ræfrvita fyr Svǫlð til auðar; bark saman haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga baugum.
When I reddened the beacon of the roof of Reifnir <sea-king> [(lit. ‘roof-beacon of Reifnir’) SHIELD > SWORD] off Svolder for riches; I gathered together barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king> [GOLD] with rings.
[3] her‑: om. C
[3-4] haugþak herfylgins Hǫlga ‘barrow-thatch of host-accompanying Hǫlgi <legendary king> [GOLD]’: Hǫlgi was a legendary king of Hålogaland in northern Norway and father of Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr (see SnE 1998, I, 60 and Note to Þul Trollkvenna 2/8). While Þorgerðr appears elsewhere as an object of pagan worship (Simek 1993, 326-7; Guðrún Nordal 2001, 49), almost all our information on Hǫlgi is in this stanza and its introductory prose, where Snorri describes how his grave-mound comprised a layer of offerings (blótféit) of gold or silver, and a layer of dirt and gravel (cf. also Þhorn Harkv 14/4I and ÞorlJ ch. 7, ÍF 9, 226).