Ásmk Lv 3VIII (Ásm 9)/8 — skyldak ‘should’
Þá hvarflaði hugr í brjósti,
er menn ellifu ofrkapp buðu,
áðr mér í svefni sögðu dísir,
at ek hjörleik þann heyja skyldak.
Þá hvarflaði hugr í brjósti, er ellifu menn buðu ofrkapp, áðr dísir sögðu mér í svefni, at ek skyldak heyja þann hjörleik.
Then courage wavered in my breast when eleven men offered violence, until dísir <minor female deities> said to me in my sleep that I should engage in that sword play [BATTLE].
notes
[8] skyldak ‘I should’: The ms. form with cliticised pers. pron. ek ‘I’, usually characteristic of Old Norse from before 1200, has not been normalised to the post-1200 form skylda ek, as it is needed to give a metrical Type A-line. This and other early forms remaining in 7 probably indicate that the poetry already existed in written form in one or more older mss.
grammar
Verbs: Preterite-present verbs
The present tense of these verbs is like the past tense of strong verbs, and their past tense is weak.
| eiga | mega | kunna | skulu | munu | muna | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indic. pres. | sing. pl. | 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd | á átt á eigum eiguð eigu | má mátt má megum meguð megu | kann kannt kann kunnum kunnuð kunnu | skal skalt skal skulum skuluð skulu | mun munt mun munum munuð munu | man mant man munum munið muna |
| indic. past stem subj. pres. stem subj. past stem | átt- eig- ætt- | mátt- meg- mætt- | kunn- kunn- kynn- | skyld- skyl- skyld- | mund- myn- mynd- | mund- mun- mynd- | ||