Ótt Hfl 18I/7 — eptir ‘afterwards’
Braut hafið, bǫðvar þreytir,
branda rjóðr, ór landi
— meir fannsk þinn an þeira
þrekr — dǫglinga rekna.
Stǫkk, sem þjóð of þekkir,
þér hverr konungr ferri;
heptuð ér en eptir
orðreyr, þess’s sat norðast.
Þreytir bǫðvar, rjóðr branda, hafið rekna dǫglinga braut ór landi; þrekr þinn fannsk meir an þeira. Hverr konungr stǫkk ferri þér, sem þjóð of þekkir; en eptir heptuð ér orðreyr, þess’s sat norðast.
Wager of battle [WARRIOR], reddener of swords [WARRIOR], you have driven the rulers away from the land; your courage was more in evidence than theirs. Each king fled far from you, as the people know; afterwards you restrained the word-reed [TONGUE] of the one who dwelt furthest north.
notes
[7] en eptir ‘afterwards’: Skj B takes en as the conj. ‘but, and’, and eptir as the adv. ‘after(wards)’ qualifying sat ‘dwelt’, but this entails the difficulty that the finite verb heptuð ‘you restrain’ precedes the conj. The interpretation here therefore follows Kock (NN §620) in taking eptir as modifying heptuð ‘restrained’ rather than sat, and in taking en(n) eptir as an adverbial phrase ‘still later, afterwards’ (NN §732; Skald). Kock emends en to the adv. enn ‘still, yet’, but en can equally be taken as an unstressed variant of enn (so ÍF 27 and this edn).