Hétk, þás hvern vetr sôtum
hrafns verðgjafa, jafnan
— líð drakk gramr — á góðar,
gagnvert, skipa sagnir.
Hétk jafnan á góðar sagnir skipa, þás sôtum hvern vetr gagnvert verðgjafa hrafns; gramr drakk líð.
I called always to the worthy ships’ companies, as we [I] sat each winter facing the meal-giver of the raven [WARRIOR]; the lord drank strong drink.
[1, 3, 4] hétk á góðar sagnir skipa ‘I called to the worthy ships’ companies’: (a) Presumably exhorting them to hear a poem, drink a toast or fight nobly; heita á ‘call on, exhort’ is a common idiom (cf. Eyv Hák 3/1I and Steinn Úlffl l. 1 in military contexts). The unstressed á ‘to’ appears to govern the immediately following góðar sagnir skipa ‘worthy ships’ companies’; this is also the solution adopted in Fms 12, 170, where hétk is glossed as ávarpaði ‘addressed’, and by Kock in NN §826. (b) Finnur Jónsson, in Skj B, takes gramr drakk líð with á góðar sagnir skipa, hence ‘the lord drank ale to the worthy ships’ companies’ together, and takes hétk together with verðgjafa hrafns ‘raven’s meal-giver [WARRIOR]’ and translates tiltalte (drak til) ‘addressed (drank to)’; but heita e-n is not recorded with such a meaning.