Eigi létuð, jǫfra bági,
yðru nafni mannkyn hafna;
hvártki flýrðu, hlenna þreytir,
hyr né malm í broddi styrjar.
Hlunna es, sem rǫðull renni,
reiðar búningr, upp í heiði,
— hrósak því, es herskip glæsir
hlenna dolgr — eða vitar brenni.
Bági jǫfra, létuð eigi mannkyn hafna nafni yðru; þreytir hlenna, flýrðu hvártki hyr né malm í broddi styrjar. Búningr reiðar hlunna es, sem rǫðull renni upp í heiði, eða vitar brenni; hrósak því, es dolgr hlenna glæsir herskip.
Subduer of princes [RULER], you did not allow the race of men to neglect your name; destroyer of thieves [JUST RULER], you flee neither fire nor steel in the forefront of battle. The array of the chariot of rollers [SHIP] is as though the sun were racing up in the bright sky, or beacons flaring; I praise the way that the foe of thieves [JUST RULER] adorns his warships.
[2] mann‑: so Flat, H, man‑ Mork, Hr
[2] mannkyn ‘race of men’: The translation preserves the full value of both elements, but the context would also admit of the sense ‘men, people’, as also would Arn Hardr 9/7. Hofmann (1955, 102) suggested that the development of meaning from ‘the human race’ to ‘(a limited number of) people, men’ in the ON word points to OE influence, and this seems possible, especially in view of the extreme rarity of mannkyn in the early poetry (see further Whaley 1998, 177-8).