Hǫrðu réð Hagbarðr
— hvatir leyfa menn þat —
aldrklifs epli*;
ýta vas sá gramr nýtr.
Mýll gerðit margsnills
morðalfs skjalfa
í geira glymskúr
geðvangs strangri.
Hagbarðr réð hǫrðu epli* aldrklifs; hvatir menn leyfa þat; sá gramr ýta vas nýtr. Mýll geðvangs margsnills morðalfs gerðit skjalfa í strangri glymskúr geira.
Hagbarðr commanded a hard apple of the life-cliff [BREAST > HEART]; keen men praise that; that lord of the people [RULER] was capable. The stone of the mind-meadow [BREAST > HEART] of the deeply wise battle-elf [WARRIOR] did not tremble in the strong din-shower of spears [BATTLE].
[3] epli*: eplis papp25ˣ, R683ˣ
[3] epli* (n. dat. sg.) ‘apple’: Eplis (n. gen. sg.) ‘apple’ (so both mss) has been emended to the dat. sg. because réð ‘commanded’ takes the dat. The internal rhyme ‑klifs : epli is somewhat problematic. Kock (NN §3117) emends epli to aldin ‘fruit’, which creates an aðalhending rather than a skothending and is grammatically incorrect (the dat. is aldini; see Hl 1941). Jón Helgason (Hl 1941) adds heldr ‘rather’ at the end of the line, but that makes the line unmetrical. It is quite possible that the consonant cluster <fs> could have been pronounced [ps], thus creating an approximate rhyme. See ANG §240.2 and Seip (1955, 51), but note the rhyme jǫfri : aldrklifs in st. 30/1 (dialect variation, or an attempt by the second poet to correct the first poet?).
case: dat.