Þess hefk gangs of goldit;
gekk mér en þér eigi
með ambáttir átta
Ingibjörg* at þinga.
Saman höfum brenda bauga
í Baldrshaga lagða;
var þá vilgi fjarri
vörðr Hálfdanar jarða.
Hefk of goldit þess gangs; Ingibjörg* gekk at þinga mér en eigi þér með átta ambáttir. Höfum lagða brenda bauga saman í Baldrshaga; vörðr jarða Hálfdanar var þá vilgi fjarri.
I have paid for this access; Ingibjǫrg went to meet me, but not you, with eight maidservants. We have placed together burnished [gold] rings in Baldrshagi; the guardian of the lands of Hálfdan <Norwegian king> [= Norway > RULER = Helgi?] was then very far away.
[1] hefk of goldit þess gangs ‘I have paid for this access’: Friðþjófr presumably refers here to his access to Ingibjǫrg in Baldrshagi, which he has alluded to in the previous stanza, and for which the brothers Helgi and Hálfdan punished him by sending him to Orkney. Only ms. 510 reads gangs ‘access, journey’, and that not certainly, for the ms. reads ‘ggs’ with superscript <n> above the line across the second <g> and the <s>. Cf. Guðr I 26/5-6 (NK 206): þess hefi ec gangs | goldit síðan ‘I have paid for this journey later’. All the other mss read gagns from gagn ‘gain, advantage’, which would give the sense ‘I have paid for this advantage’. Both readings give good sense.