Sigv Austv 16I/7 — at ‘to’
Búa hilmis sal hjǫlmum
hirðmenn, þeirs svan grenna
(hér sék) bens, ok brynjum
(beggja kost á veggjum).
Því á ungr konungr engi
— ygglaust es þat — dyggra
húsbúnaði at hrósa;
hǫll es dýr með ǫllu.
Hirðmenn, þeirs grenna svan bens, búa sal hilmis hjǫlmum ok brynjum; hér sék kost beggja á veggjum. Því á engi ungr konungr dyggra húsbúnaði at hrósa; þat es ygglaust; hǫll es dýr með ǫllu.
Courtiers, who feed the swan of the wound [RAVEN/EAGLE], decorate the hall of the ruler with helmets and mail-shirts; here I see the choicest of both on the walls. And so no young king has worthier hangings to boast of; that is without a doubt; the hall is costly in every respect.
readings
[7] at: á 972ˣ, om. 75a, 73aˣ, á corrected from at 325VII
notes
[5, 6-7] því á engi ungr konungr dyggra húsbúnaði at hrósa ‘and so no young king has worthier hangings to boast of’: (a) Því (n. dat. sg., l. 5) is here assumed to be the adv. ‘and so, therefore’, while á is ‘has’, 3rd pers. sg. pres. indic. of eiga (so also ÍF 27; Hkr 1991). (b) Finnur Jónsson in Skj B adopts the ÓH reading því(a)t ‘because’ (so Fms, Konráð Gíslason 1892, 179 and, with different syntax, Gering 1912, 143). This produces superior meaning but has the disadvantage of requiring the reading á ‘has’ for at ‘to’ in l. 7, whereas at is what all the most reliable mss say. (c) Því cannot be a dat. of comparison, ‘(worthier) than that’, because in that event one would expect it to be stressed and to be m. in agreement with húsbúnaði ‘hangings’.