Hrǫnns fyr Humru mynni
háleit, þars vér beitum;
sveigir lauk, en lægjask
lǫnd fyr Veslu sǫndum.
Eigi drífr í augu
alda lauðri faldin
— drengr ríðr þurr af þingi —
þeim, es nú sitr heima.
Hrǫnns háleit fyr mynni Humru, þars vér beitum; lauk sveigir, en lǫnd lægjask fyr sǫndum Veslu. Alda, faldin lauðri, drífr eigi í augu þeim, es nú sitr heima; drengr ríðr þurr af þingi.
The swell is lofty before Humber’s mouth, where we are tacking; the mast sways, and lands become lower off Vesla’s sands. The wave, capped with foam, is not driving into the eyes of the one who is sitting at home now; the fellow rides dry from the assembly.
[1, 4] mynni Humru; sǫndum Veslu ‘Humber’s mouth; Vesla’s sands’: Both of these place names have been treated here as genitival phrases rather than true compounds because that is how they are presented in all of the mss. Townend (1998, 74-6, 79-81) adopts a middle course by hyphenating both, although he notes (1998, 81) that ‘OE Humbra mūþa, a parallel phrase ... may have been a well-established compound’.