Stólþengils lét stinga
— styrjǫld vas þá byrjuð —
eyðir augu bæði
út heiðingja sútar.
Lagði allvaldr Egða
austr á bragning hraustan
gráligt mark, en Girkja
gǫtu illa fór stillir.
Eyðir sútar heiðingja lét stinga út bæði augu stólþengils; þá vas styrjǫld byrjuð. Allvaldr Egða lagði gráligt mark á hraustan bragning austr, en stillir Girkja fór illa gǫtu.
The destroyer of the care [GLADDENER] of the wolf [lit. heath-goer] [WARRIOR] had both eyes of the emperor stabbed out; war was under way then. The overlord of the Egðir [NORWEGIAN KING = Haraldr] placed a hostile mark on the daring prince in the east, and the ruler of the Greeks [= Michael] travelled a dire road.
[7] gráligt mark ‘a hostile mark’: ‘Hostile, malicious’ is the normal sense of adj. gráligt, but its etymological sense ‘greyish’ may perhaps also resonate with the mention in the first helmingr of the proverbially grey wolf. For possible influence of the st., and especially of this phrase, on Theodoricus’s Historia, see Frank 1978, 124.