Ástblindir ’ró seggir svá
sumir, at þykkja mjǫk fás gá;
þannig verðr of mansǫng mælt;
marga hefr þat hyggna tælt.
Ekki var þat forðum farald;
Finnan gat þó œrðan Harald;
hánum þótti sólbjǫrt sú;
slíks dœmi verðr mǫrgum nú.
Sumir seggir ’ró svá ástblindir, at þykkja gá mjǫk fás; þannig verðr mælt of mansǫng; þat hefr tælt marga hyggna. Ekki var þat farald forðum; Finnan gat þó Harald œrðan; hánum þótti sú sólbjǫrt; mǫrgum verðr nú dœmi slíks.
Some men are so blinded by love that they seem to heed very little; so it is said about a love-song; it has entrapped many wise men. It wasn’t a malady in the old days; still, the Saami girl drove Haraldr out of his mind; to him she seemed bright as the sun; instances of such happen to many now.
[3] mansǫng ‘a love-song’: As a neutral designation, the word occurs in skaldic verse only here and in Bjbp Jóms 42/4I. Gylf (SnE 2005, 25) reports that Freyja was fond of mansǫngr, and in Egils saga (Eg ch. 56, ÍF 2, 149) a character refers to a lausavísa as a mansǫngr. The final medieval prose instance – Tristrams saga ok Ísǫndar (Kölbing 1878-82, 83) – associates mansǫngvar with love longing and music, as does the later mansǫngur or opening ‘love-complaint’ of rímur poetry. See Marold (2007, 256-7).