Sékat Hrolfs ór hendi
né Hrollaugi fljúga
dǫrr á dolga mengi;
dugir oss fǫður hefna.
En í kveld, meðan knýjum,
of kerstraumi, rómu,
þegjandi sitr þetta
Þórir jarl á Mœri.
Sékat dǫrr fljúga ór hendi Hrolfs né Hrollaugi á mengi dolga; dugir oss hefna fǫður. En í kveld, meðan knýjum rómu, sitr Þórir jarl þetta þegjandi of kerstraumi á Mœri.
I do not see spears flying from Hrólfr’s hand nor from Hrollaugr’s in the throng of enemies; it is right for us to avenge our father. Yet this evening, while we [I] press our [my] attack, Þórir jarl ignores this in silence over his cup-stream [DRINK] in Møre.
[4] dugir ‘it is right’: The verb duga is here used in the sense of ‘be right’, ‘be a duty’, which shades into the more familiar sense of ‘avail’ (Konráð Gíslason 1892, 196-7; Mundal 1993, 254-5). Kock (NN §2411) emends to dofnar, which would give some such sense as ‘we are sluggish in avenging our father’, so as to obtain a hending. However, the hendingar in Torf-Einarr’s lausavísur are not regular (see Introduction).