Gjǫld hefk marka
malmdyns fyr hlyn
framm fimm tega
forvíst borit,
þeiras veitti
víghagr fyr brag
mér morðstœrir,
mannbaldr es ek fann.
Hefk forvíst borit framm fyr hlyn malmdyns gjǫld fimm tega marka, þeiras víghagr morðstœrir veitti mér fyr brag, es ek fann mannbaldr.
I have most certainly brought forward before the maple of metal-din [BATTLE > WARRIOR] repayment for the fifty marks which the slaying-skilled battle-increaser [WARRIOR] gave me for a poem, when I met the outstanding man.
[1, 3] fimm tega marka ‘fifty marks’: Lit. ‘five tens of marks’; an enormous sum. Fidjestøl (1984b, 62) calculates that this equates to 25 pounds of high-quality silver, or the value of about 200 cows. The minor emendation of acc. pl. tigu to gen. pl. tega suggested by Kock (NN §786) is necessary since gjǫld ‘(re)payment’ takes the gen. of the thing for which recompense is made (LP: gjald 1). For the root vowel in tega, see ANG §395 Anm. 3.