Heimskr þykki mér, sá er heðra ferr,
maðr einn saman myrkvar grímur.
Hyrr er á sveimun; haugar opnaz;
brennr fold ok fen; förum harðara.
Þykki mér heimskr, sá er ferr heðra, maðr einn saman myrkvar grímur. Hyrr er á sveimun; haugar opnaz; brennr fold ok fen; förum harðara.
He seems to me foolish, that one who travels here, the man alone in the murky night. Fire is flickering; mounds open; the earth burns, and the fen; let us go faster.
[4] myrkvar: dökkvar R715ˣ
[4] myrkvar grímur ‘in the murky night’: Lit. ‘in the murky nights’, acc. pl. of the passage of time. The reading of R715ˣ, dökkvar grímur ‘in the dark night’, makes sense but lacks alliteration. The sense ‘night’ for gríma is poetic (cf. Þul Dœgra 1/3III and Note); otherwise the term refers to a hood, face-covering or mask, or armour for a horse’s upper body (LP, CVC: gríma).