Gótt es gǫrva at frétta
— gunnr óx fyr haf sunnan —
— sverð bitu feigra fyrða
fjǫrrǫnn — at því mǫnnum:
hvern rakkligast rekka
randláðs viðir kvôðu
— Surts ættar vinnk sléttan
sylg — Ôleifi fylgja.
Gótt es mǫnnum at frétta gǫrva at því — gunnr óx fyr sunnan haf; sverð bitu fjǫrrǫnn feigra fyrða —: hvern rekka viðir randláðs kvôðu fylgja Ôleifi rakkligast; vinnk sléttan sylg ættar Surts.
It is good for people to ask searchingly about this — battle swelled south of the sea; swords bit life-halls [BREASTS] of fated men —: which of the champions did trees of the rim-land [SHIELD > WARRIORS] say supported Óláfr most bravely; I make the smooth drink of the family of Surtr <giant> [GIANTS > POETRY].
[7] sléttan: sléttar 54, ‘sleittar’ Bb
[7] sléttan ‘smooth’: Sléttan, m. acc. sg. agreeing with the poetry-kenning based on sylg ‘drink’, is here taken as the adj. used attributively. It could otherwise be taken as predicative, hence ‘make (the poetry) smooth’, or else as the p. p. of slétta ‘to smoothe’, cf. slétta óð ‘smoothe a poem’, ESk Geisl 50/3VII. This is the earliest surviving example in the skaldic corpus of sléttr ‘smooth, smoothed’ applied to poetry, a very common metaphor in C12th and later, especially Christian, poetry.