ÞjóðA Magnfl 10II/1 — fleiri ‘more’
Bôru bǫslar fleiri
bogmenn at hǫr tognum;
mundit þann dag Þrœndi
þreyta fyrr at skeytum.
Svá þykkt flugu síðan
snœridǫrr of skœru
— ótt vas ǫrdrif látit —
illa sátt á milli.
Bogmenn bôru fleiri bǫslar at tognum hǫr; þann dag mundit Þrœndi þreyta fyrr at skeytum. Síðan flugu snœridǫrr of skœru svá þykkt, sátt illa á milli; ótt ǫrdrif vas látit.
Bowmen placed more arrows on the drawn bowstring; that day the Þrœndir would not be the first to let up with their missiles. Then the thonged javelins flew over the fight so densely [that] you could hardly see between them; a raging arrow-drift was sent.
notes
[1] bôru fleiri ‘placed more (arrows)’: (a) This, the majority reading, leaves the comp. fleiri ‘more’ without an object of comparison, but the sense could be ‘kept on placing’ (as assumed in ÍF 28, which prefers this reading, and in Hkr 1991). This fits well with the statement about the persistence of the Þrœndir in ll. 3-4. (b) The negative bru-(a)t ‘have not placed’, found only in the K transcriptions, yields a suitably hyperbolical claim, ‘have not [ever] placed (more arrows)’ or the cl. could be interpreted, as by ÍF 28, as meaning ‘they did not place (arrows) for a second time’, i.e. they were victorious in the first onslaught. Hkr 1893-1901 has 2nd pl. pret. bruð bǫslar ... bogmenn in the text, III, 55, but the negative brut in IV, 96, giving the sense ‘bowmen have never placed more arrows’.