Harðrôðum gekk heiðis
hjaldrmagnaði skjaldar
skatna ætt á skreytta
skotjǫrð loga fjarðar.
Lýð gat lofðungr ráða
— landherr frá sið vǫndum
þá hvarf allr —, ok illum,
ólítt, goðum nítti.
Ætt skatna gekk á skotjǫrð heiðis, skreytta loga fjarðar, harðrôðum skjaldar hjaldrmagnaði. Lofðungr gat ráða lýð ólítt; allr landherr hvarf þá frá vǫndum sið, ok nítti illum goðum.
The kindred of men put themselves in the swaying earth of the hawk [HAND], adorned with the fire of the fjord [GOLD], of the hard-ruling increaser of the uproar of the shield [(lit. ‘uproar-increaser of the shield’) BATTLE > WARRIOR]. The king could rule people to no small degree; all the land’s people turned then from a wicked faith, and rejected bad gods.
[3] skreytta: skreyta Bb
[3] skreytta ‘adorned’: This straightforward emendation improves the skothending (ætt : -eytt-) and allows this word to be taken as a participial adj. qualifying jǫrð ‘earth’ rather than a verb ‘to adorn’, which would be difficult to fit into the syntax. Cf. Note to st. 5/3 ár* on single/double consonant spellings in Bb.