Hér þykki ek nú í Hakaveldi
hornungr vera hverrar þjóðar.
Allir eigu innar at sitja
hálfargir menn en Hálfsrekkar.
Ek þykki nú vera hornungr hverrar þjóðar hér í Hakaveldi. Allir hálfargir menn eigu at sitja innar en Hálfsrekkar.
I now seem to be an outcast amongst all people here in Haki’s realm. All half-cowardly men are entitled to sit futher inwards than Hálfr’s champions.
[7] hálfargir menn: ‘halfar girmar’ 2845
[7] hálfargir menn ‘half-cowardly men’: This emendation appears in Skj B and Skald, while Edd. Min., Hálf 1909 and FSGJ emend to hallar gumnar, construing allir gumnar hallar ‘all men in the hall’. Hálf 1864 emended to Haka gumar ‘Haki’s men’. The ms. here reads ‘halfar girmar’ (not ‘halfargirmadr’ as Skj A has it), with the superscript -ar symbol for the final syllable of each word. Probably the scribe’s exemplar had a nasal stroke instead of an -ar abbreviation over the m of menn. The adj. hálfargr ‘half-cowardly’ occurs nowhere else in Old Norse.