Herskerðir klauf harðan
— hann gekk reiðr of skeiðar —
svarðar stofn með sverði
sunnr eldviðum kunnum.
Kunni gramr at gunni
— gunnþinga jarnmunnum
margr lá heggr of hǫggvinn —
holdbarkar rô sarka.
Herskerðir klauf harðan stofn svarðar kunnum eldviðum með sverði sunnr; hann gekk reiðr of skeiðar. Gramr kunni sarka rô holdbarkar at gunni; margr heggr Gunnþinga lá of hǫggvinn jarnmunnum.
The army-diminisher [RULER] split the hard stump of the scalp [HEAD] of famous sword-trees [WARRIORS] with a sword in the south; he went angry through the warships. The prince knew how to redden the yard-arm of flesh-bark [MAIL-SHIRT > SWORD] in battle; many a cherry-tree of meetings of Gunnr <valkyrie> [BATTLES > WARRIOR] lay chopped down by iron mouths.
[4] kunnum eldviðum ‘of famous sword-trees [WARRIORS]’: Finnur Jónsson in Skj B emends kunnum to gunnar ‘of battle’ to produce eldviðum gunnar ‘men’, presumably with viðum ‘trees’ as base-word and eld- gunnar ‘fire of battle [SWORD]’ as determinant. However, eldr ‘fire’ is among the sword-heiti in Þul Sverða 8/2III, and can mean ‘sword’ in warrior- and battle-kennings, though the examples are mainly in later poetry (see Meissner 76, who suggests that eldr in these expressions is a synonym for brandr m. ‘flame, sword’). Emendation is therefore unnecessary (so also Krijn 1931, 54).