Vasa fý*st, es rannk rastir
reiðr of skóg frá Eiðum
— menn of veit, at mœttum
meini — tolf ok eina.
Hykka fót án flekkum
— fell sár á il hvára —
— hvast gengum þó þingat
þann dag — konungsmǫnnum.
Vasa fý*st, es rannk reiðr tolf rastir ok eina of skóg frá Eiðum; menn of veit, at mœttum meini. Hykka fót konungsmǫnnum án flekkum; sár fell á hvára il; þó gengum hvast þingat þann dag.
It was not [my] desire when I ran, angry, twelve leagues and one through the forest from Eiðar; people know that we met with harm. I think not a foot of the king’s men was without sores; a wound landed on each sole; still, we travelled keenly there that day.
[1] fý*st: fyrst all
[1] fý*st ‘[my] desire’: (a) The mss all read fyrst ‘first’, but this spoils the skothending and makes for strained sense. Editors including Árni Magnússon (in 761bˣ), Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) and Jón Helgason (1968, 45) have therefore emended to fýst, which in pronunciation may not have been far distant from fyrst. (b) The eds of ÍF 27 and Hkr 1991, as well as Jón Skaptason (1983, 84) retain fyrst, hence, in Jón Skaptason’s translation, ‘It was not the first [time] … that we met with disaster …’. (c) Kock (NN §2471) proposes frest ‘delay’, producing the sense ‘there was no delay when I fled …’.