Þoku dregr upp it ýtra;
él festisk it vestra
(mǫkkr mun náms) af nøkkvi
(naðrbings kominn hingat).
Þoku dregr upp it ýtra; él festisk it vestra af nøkkvi; mǫkkr náms naðrbings mun kominn hingat.
Fog rises up on the outer side; a storm gathers in the west for some reason; the cloud from the taking of the adder-bed [GOLD] must have come this way.
[1] þoku dregr upp it ýtra ‘fog rises up on the outer side’: This line lacks skothending. Emendation of ýtra ‘outer, outer side’ to eystra ‘east’ (Skj B; Skald) gives end-rhyme with vestra ‘west’ in l. 2, as well as syntactic and semantic parallelism. These features enhance the stanza’s incantatory quality (cf. for example the runic metrical charms in Liestøl 1963, 38-41), but it makes sense as it stands so has not been emended here; see also Note to Þjsk Hákdr 1/1.