Hildr of réð, þvís heldu
Hǫrngráts fyr mér *látri
(því emk lystr at lasta)
†lestundir† (fǫr þessa).
Ok †liðbjúgrar leigrar†
lét æva mik †sævar†;
eigi mun * við ekkju
austmanna fǫr sannask.
Hildr Hǫrngráts of réð, þvís †lestundir† heldu *látri fyr mér; því emk lystr at lasta þessa fǫr. Ok †liðbjúgrar leigrar† lét mik æva †sævar†; fǫr austmanna við ekkju mun eigi * sannask.
The Hildr <valkyrie> of Hǫrn’s <= Freyja’s> weeping [GOLD > WOMAN] arranged it in such a way that … withheld a bed from me; for that reason I am keen to criticize this journey. And … never made me …; the journey of the Easterners to the widow will not come to pass.
[4] †lestundir†: ‘[…]d[…]’ Hb, ‘lest[…]d’ HbFms n. p., lestundir HbSnE, HbFJ
[4] †lestundir† ‘…’: The meaning of this cpd is uncertain, LP: lestundir declaring it incomprehensible. The second element is possibly stundir ‘times, hours’. Guðmundur Finnbogason (1928, 225) suggested the first element might have been læ ‘deception, harm, poison’, but this destroys the skothending between les- : þes-. Kock (Skald and NN §1025) emended to lestandar, which he suggested is the inflected pl. of the pres. part. of the verb lesta ‘to injure, damage’ in the sense ‘injurers, damagers’.