Knútr sásk, — herr hjósk —
hlífð gnast, rǫnd brast,
— guðr svall — folk fell,
fátt, mart, hvít*, svǫrt.
Bargsk ǫld, (beit skjǫld
benskóð) rann þjóð,
hvasst flugu hjalmreyr
hó, lôg (breið) mjó.
Knútr sásk fátt; herr hjósk; hvít* hlífð gnast; svǫrt rǫnd brast; guðr svall; mart folk fell. Hó ǫld bargsk; breið benskóð beit skjǫld; lôg þjóð rann; mjó hjalmreyr flugu hvasst.
Knútr feared little; the army exchanged blows; the white shield cracked; the black shield-rim crashed; battle increased; many men fell. Noble people saved themselves; the broad wound-weapon [SWORD] bit the shield; ignoble people ran; slender helmet-reeds [ARROWS] flew violently.
[6] rann (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) ‘ran’: Both mss have rauð (3rd pers. sg. pret. indic.) ‘reddened’. If that reading is retained, the verb needs an object, and, following Sveinbjörn Egilsson (SnE 1848, 246), Skj B construes þjóð rauð benskóð ‘people reddened the wound-weapon’ (so also Skald). That line is suspect because it contains three internal rhymes, and Holtsmark (Hl 1941) emends to the intransitive rann ‘ran’ in accordance with st. 78/5. Her emendation has been adopted in the present edn.