[7] mér (dat. sg.) ‘my’: This is taken as a dat. of possession to hrygg ‘spine’. Skj B and Skald adopt the 593b reading nær ‘near’ while retaining the Flat reading hrygg (so also ÍF 9): ‘the belt truly draws nearer to my spine’. The 593b variant hungr dregr belti nær at hvru ‘hunger truly draws the belt closer’ is syntactically possible. For a similar image of a hungry retainer, see ESk Lv 4.