Af annars dauða væntu aldrigi,
at þér gagn geriz;
aldrlagi sínu ræðr engi maðr;
nær stendr hölðum hel.
Væntu aldrigi, at þér gagn geriz af annars dauða; engi maðr ræðr aldrlagi sínu; hel stendr nær hölðum.
Never hope that you may profit from another’s death; nobody controls his own life’s end; death is close to men.
[6] hölðum hel: ‘haulld[...]m[...]’ 401ˣ, ‘holl hol’ 624
[6] hölðum hel ‘to men ... death’: The reading in 624 (‘nær stendr holl hol’) might indicate that the scribe of that ms. no longer understood the allusion to the role of Hel as the abode of the dead in Norse mythology or did not expect an allusion to pre-Christian mythology in a Christian poem.