Ok fyr fornan
friðmenn liðu
haug Hjǫrnagla
hvasst griðfastir.
Þás stóð fyr Stað
stafnklifs drifu,
vasa eyðilig
ǫrbeiðis fǫr.
Ok griðfastir friðmenn liðu hvasst fyr fornan haug Hjǫrnagla. Þás stóð stafnklifs drifu fyr Stað, vasa fǫr ǫrbeiðis eyðilig.
And the protection-secure men of peace travelled keenly past the ancient mound of Tjernagel. When the stud-horses of the prow-cliff [SEA > SHIPS] sped past Stad, the journey of the arrow-demander [WARRIOR] was not wasted.
[8] fǫr ǫrbeiðis ‘the journey of the arrow-demander [WARRIOR]’: This interpretation is most consonant with skaldic style (so also Skj B; LP: 2. ǫrbeiðir; ÍF 27; ÍF 29; ÓHLeg 1982). Kock (NN §1129C) suggests that ǫrbeiðir here has the same meaning as in st. 2/2, with ǫr from adj. ǫrr ‘eager’, and that what Knútr is the ‘eager desirer’ of is the stóð stafnklifs ‘stud-horses of the prow-cliff [SEA > SHIPS]’ of ll. 5-6, even though (as he points out) the two phrases are not in a direct grammatical relationship.