Geng ek of þvert frá þengils
(þróask ekki mér) rekka,
emk sem bast (í brjósti)
bleikr, verðungar leiki.
Minnumk ek, hvar manna
minn dróttinn lék sinna
opt á óðalstoptum
orðsæll ok vér forðum.
Ek geng of þvert frá leiki verðungar þengils rekka; ekki þróask í brjósti mér; emk bleikr sem bast. Ek minnumk, hvar orðsæll dróttinn minn ok vér lék opt forðum á óðalstoptum manna sinna.
I walk away from the game of the bodyguard of the prince of warriors [RULER = Sveinn/Magnús]; sobbing sorrows grow in my breast; I am pale as bast. I recall where my praise-blessed lord [Óláfr] and we [I] played often in the past at the ancestral homesteads of his people.
[1, 2] þengils rekka ‘of the prince of warriors [RULER = Sveinn/Magnús]’: (a) This is taken here, as by most eds, as a kenning. It refers to King Sveinn judging by Hkr but to Magnús according to the interpolated ÓH texts (see Context). (b) Rekka could alternatively depend on verðungar ‘of the bodyguard’ in l. 4 rather than þengils ‘of the prince’ in l. 1, and in fact Konráð Gíslason (1892, 188; see also Nj 1875-8, II, 368) forms a cpd verðungar-rekka.