ÞjóðA Sex 12II/1 — Sveini ‘Sveinn’
Frôn hefr sveit við Sveini
sinni skipt, til minna,
dôð ok dróttni góðum;
drengspell es þat lengi.
Frôn sveit við Sveini hefr skipt dôð sinni ok góðum dróttni til minna; þat es drengspell lengi.
The splendid troop with Sveinn has exchanged its heroism and worthy lord for the lesser [choice]; that will be a blot on nobility for a long time.
notes
[1] við Sveini ‘with Sveinn’: (a) Við in 301ˣ is an emendation made by Árni Magnússon, producing the sense that by being with Sveinn the troop have sold out their nobility. An alternative might be to take skipt við Sveini together as ‘exchanged for Sveinn’ (so Andersson and Gade). (b) All mss read náð, p. p. of ná(a) ‘reach, get, get hold of’ which, when accompanied by the dat. of an animate object, usually means ‘catch’. Some such sense as ‘go to join (Sveinn)’ is perhaps not unthinkable in the light of ná Vermundi in Þmáhl Máv 3/5, 8V, which seems to mean ‘get Vermundr’s help’ (so LP), and of the phrase ná e-s fundi ‘go to meet sby’. However, this would also entail assuming that hefr in l. 1 is completed by two past participles: náð and skipt ‘exchanged’, and although such a construction would be stylistically possible it seems unlikely here.