Enn eru aðrar Óðins meyjar:
Hildr ok Gǫndul, Hlǫkk, Mist, Skǫgul;
þá es Hrund ok Eir, Hrist, Skuld talið.
Enn eru aðrar meyjar Óðins: Hildr ok Gǫndul, Hlǫkk, Mist, Skǫgul; þá es Hrund ok Eir, Hrist, Skuld talið.
There are yet other maids of Óðinn: Hildr and Gǫndul, Hlǫkk, Mist, Skǫgul; then Hrund and Eir, Hrist, Skuld are listed.
[6] Hrist Skuld talið: Hrist ok Skuld talið A, ‘[…]alen’ B, ‘hrist ok skulld talen’ 744ˣ
[5, 6] Eir, Hrist, Skuld: This reading is attested only in ms. C (and adopted in Skj B and Skald). Mss R and Tˣ have Mist rather than Eir, while in ms. A the second name is omitted (illegible in B, but ‘mist’ in 744ˣ). The confusion here is evidently caused by the next name, Hrist, since Hrist and Mist traditionally appear together (cf. Grí 36/1 (NK 64): Hrist oc Mist and Þul Valkyrja 1/3: Hrist, Mist; see also Note there). Mist is already mentioned in l. 4, however. The generally accepted reading of l. 5, based on ms. C, is problematic because Eir, which means ‘peace, clemency’, is not a valkyrie but one of the Ásynjur whose name is frequently found in kennings for ‘woman’. It also occurs in skaldic poetry as a half-kenning denoting ‘woman’, and it is mentioned in Þul Kvenna II 3/3. In Gylf (SnE 2005, 29), Snorri characterises Eir as an extremely good physician (leiknir beztr). Hence her name does not belong in this list of warlike women. — [6] Skuld: The name means ‘future destiny’ (cf. the verb skulu ‘must’ and skuld f. ‘debt’). This is the name of one of the three norns in Vsp 20/8 who are mentioned in the next stanza of the present þula. Later in the same eddic poem Skuld is given as the name of a valkyrie, however (Vsp 30/5 (NK 7)): Sculd helt scildi ‘Skuld held a shield’. Here she is the first of the riding valkyries seen by the prophetess (vǫlva). It is perhaps owing to these passages from Vsp that the norn Skuld is identified with Skuld the valkyrie in Gylf (SnE 2005, 30): Guðr ok Rota ok norn in yngsta er Skuld heitir ríða jafnan at kjósa val ok ráða vígum ‘Guðr and Rota and the youngest norn, who is called Skuld, always ride to choose those to be slain and to decide the killings’. See also this name in Þul Valkyrja 1/7.