Siðar heilags brá sólar
— setrs vas þat fyr betra
auðfinnǫndum annars
ómjós rǫðuls — ljósi.
Œztr þrifnuðr réð efnask
oss, þás líf á krossi
jarðar allra fyrða
ónauðigr tók dauða.
Ljósi sólar heilags siðar brá; þat vas auðfinnǫndum fyr betra ómjós setrs annars rǫðuls. Œztr þrifnuðr réð efnask oss, þás tók ónauðigr líf allra fyrða jarðar dauða á krossi.
The light of the sun of holy faith [= God > = Christ] was extinguished; for finders of riches [MEN] that preceded the better [light] of the not-small abode of another sun [SKY/HEAVEN > = God (= Christ)]. The best prosperity decided to bring itself to us when he, willing, won the life of all the men of earth through death on a cross.
[1] siðar ‘faith’: This edn, with Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Kock (Skald; NN §2315), reads this as the gen. sg. of the noun siðr ‘religious practice, faith’ and construes: Ljósi sólar heilags siðar brá ‘The light of the sun of holy faith was extinguished’. Another possibility is to read the first word with a long ‘i’, síðar, the comp. form of the adv. síð, with the sense Síðar brá sólar ljósi ‘Later, the light of the sun [= Christ] was destroyed’. Síðar is then a reference to the preceding st., and its initial position in st. 3 may suggest that it is meant as a transition between the two. For this reading, see Chase 2005, 53 and 127. The long form, síðar, is unmetrical, however, as resolution is required in position one to avoid a hypermetrical l.
case: gen.
number: sg.