Hept vas lítt — á lopti
liðu ǫrvar framm gǫrva —
brodda flaug, áðr bauga
brjótendr skyti spjótum.
Orð vas hitt, at harðast,
hvarkunnt, fyr lǫg sunnan,
mest, í malma gnaustan
minn dróttinn framm sótti.
Flaug brodda vas lítt hept; ǫrvar liðu gǫrva framm á lopti, áðr brjótendr bauga skyti spjótum. Hitt vas mest hvarkunnt orð, at dróttinn minn sótti framm harðast í gnaustan malma fyr sunnan lǫg.
The flight of points was little hindered; arrows travelled precisely forward in the sky, before breakers of rings [GENEROUS MEN] shot spears. That was the most widely-known report, that my lord pressed forward the hardest in the clashing of metal weapons [BATTLE] south over the sea.
[7] gnaustan malma ‘the clashing of metal weapons [BATTLE]’: Malma is gen. pl., lit. ‘of metals’, i.e. metal weapons. The only occurrences of gnaustan ‘clashing, gnashing, tumult’ in the skaldic corpus are here and in st. 22/2, though HSt Rst 18/4 has the closely related noise-word gnaust.
case: dat.