Trautt erumk lausa at láta
— leiðs oss konungs reiði —
(gjarn es gramr at arna)
Grímsey (of trǫð fleyja).
Hǫldum vér fyr hildar
— hanns dýrr konungr — stýri
holmgjarðar — fremsk hilmir
hagli peitu — nagla.
Erumk trautt at láta Grímsey lausa; reiði konungs [e]s oss leið; gramr es gjarn at arna of trǫð fleyja. Hǫldum vér nagla holmgjarðar fyr stýri hildar; hanns dýrr konungr; hilmir fremsk hagli peitu.
I am reluctant to let Grímsey go; the king’s anger is hateful to us [me]; the prince is eager to travel over the path of vessels [SEA]. Let us hold the stud of the islet-belt [SEA > ISLAND] against the controller of battle [WARRIOR]; he is a splendid king; the ruler advances himself by the hail of the spear [BATTLE].
[3] arna ‘to travel’: The verb occurs with both long and short vowel (ANG §127.1), but the aðalhending on gjarn ‘eager’ in Anon Liðs 3/2 favours the short variant there, and possibly here also. This seems to be the weak verb árna/arna ‘travel (as an envoy), wander’, but the juxtaposition of árna Grímsey seems to pun on its commoner homophone, árna ‘gain, achieve’, referring to Óláfr Haraldsson’s territorial ambitions.