[1] burtu ‘away’: We should have expected the shorter form burt ‘away’ with a verb of motion voru farin ‘had gone’ (ll. 1, 3). The long form (burtu), which is a later form (see Bandle 1956, 435 and Note to st. 17/6), could have been caused by the proximity to the auxiliary voru lit. ‘were’ and the fact that the actual verb of motion, the p. p. farin ‘gone’, does not appear until l. 3 (see also Konráð Gíslason 1895-7, II, 194 and st. 5/3 below).