Ár kváðu Humla fyrir her ráða,
Gizur Gautum, Gotum Angantý,
Valdar Dönum, en Völum Kíar;
Alrekr inn frækni enskri þjóðu.
Ár kváðu Humla ráða fyrir her, Gizur Gautum, Angantý Gotum, Valdar Dönum en Kíar Völum; Alrekr inn frækni enskri þjóðu.
Long ago they said Humli ruled over the people, Gizurr the Gautar, Angantýr the Goths, Valdarr the Danes, and Kíarr the Valir; Alrekr inn frœkni (‘the Brave’) [ruled] the English people.
[2] fyrir her ‘over the people’: Skj B, Skald, FSGJ, Heiðr 1960 and ÍF Edd. adopt the reading Húnum ‘the Huns’, from a marginal addition in Holm papp 120 folˣ. This ms. is a copy of Verelius’ edn of Heiðr (Heiðr 1672) with extensive annotations, most of which demonstrably stem from a ms. of the same class as 203ˣ (Andrews 1914, 83-5), by Guðmundur Ólafsson (1652-95), an Icelandic scribe based in Sweden (see Busch 2002, 14-27). This gives good sense, since Humli is indeed king of the Huns, although it is not necessary to emend here.