Herskip vannt af harða stinnum
hlunni geyst í Salt it Eystra;
skjǫldungr, stétt á skǫrum hvéldan
skeiðar húf með girzku reiði.
Vafðir lítt, en vendir bifðusk;
varta hrǫkk, en niðr nam søkkva;
geystisk hlýr, en hristi* bára,
hrími stokkin, búnar grímur.
Vannt herskip geyst af harða stinnum hlunni í it Eystra Salt; skjǫldungr, stétt á húf skeiðar, hvéldan skǫrum, með girzku reiði. Vafðir lítt, en vendir bifðusk; varta hrǫkk, en nam søkkva niðr; hlýr geystisk, en bára, stokkin hrími, hristi* búnar grímur.
You made warships surge [lit. surged, propelled] from the most firm launcher into the Baltic; king, you boarded the warship’s hull, curved by its jointed planks, [and] with Russian tackle. You wavered little, but masts shuddered; the prow jolted, and started to plunge; the bow surged on, and the billow, flecked with rime, shook the adorned figure-heads.
[7] hristi*: ‘hristiz’ Hr
[7] hristi* ‘shook’: Ms. ‘hristiz bara’, normalised hristizk bára ‘the billow shook’ (intransitive) is an adequate reading, but it leaves búnar grímur ‘adorned figure-heads’ (l. 8) outside the syntax of the helmingr. The simplest solution, adopted here, is to emend to hristi, transitive ‘shook’, so that bára is the subject, and búnar grímur object, to the verb (as proposed in Nj 1875-8, II 159). The ‑z in ms. hristiz may be an error influenced by the preceding reflexives, ms. ‘bífduzst’ (l. 5) and ‘geystiz’ (l. 7); or it may represent an attempt to make the syntax of the l. complete, regardless of the syntax of the helmingr. This would be characteristic of the compiler of H-Hr (Louis-Jensen 1977, 152).