Né hœfilig, hreifa,
hykk dróttinssvik þóttu,
elds, þeims allvel heldu
orð sín, viðir, forðum.
Né hykk, viðir elds hreifa, dróttinssvik þóttu hœfilig, þeims heldu orð sín allvel forðum.
I do not think, trees of the fire of the hand [GOLD > MEN], betrayal of one’s lord seemed becoming to those who kept their word very well in the past.
[1] hreifa: ‘ræifa’ all
[1, 3, 4] viðir elds hreifa ‘trees of the fire of the hand [GOLD > MEN]’: The nom. pl. produces an apostrophe, presumably to the same listeners as those called sigrviðum (dat. pl.) ‘trees of victory [WARRIORS]’ in st. 1/5. Previous eds have emended, with some support from the variant reading viðr gram, to dat. pl. viðum, which provides an indirect object for þóttu ‘seemed’.