Sigv Vestv 3I/8 — fundr ‘a meeting’
Ǫrr tegask Ôleif gerva
(allt hefr sá*) fjǫrvaltan
— konungs dauða munk kvíða —
Knútr ok Hôkun (úti).
Haldisk vǫrðr, þótt vildit
varla Knútr ok jarlar,
(dælla es) fyrst á fjalli
(fundr, ef sjalfr kømsk undan).
Ǫrr Knútr ok Hôkun tegask gerva Ôleif fjǫrvaltan; sá* hefr allt úti; munk kvíða dauða konungs. Vǫrðr haldisk fyrst á fjalli, þótt Knútr ok jarlar vildit varla; dælla es, fundr, ef sjalfr kømsk undan.
Bold Knútr and Hákon prove themselves ready to put Óláfr in danger of his life; he [Knútr] has all [his forces] out; I will dread the death of the king. The guardian [Óláfr] should in the first instance keep himself in the mountains, even though Knútr and the jarls hardly wanted [that]; it is easier, a meeting, if he himself gets away.
readings
[8] fundr: fund 325V
notes
[7, 8] dælla es, fundr ‘it is easier, a meeting’: LP: dæll notes the expression dælla es ‘it is easier, better’, and ÍF 27, ÍF 29 suggest the sense líklegra er, vera má ‘it is more likely, it can be’. As dælla is the n. nom. sg. form of the comp. adj., it cannot directly qualify the m. noun fundr, but rather qualifies the unexpressed subject of es, ‘it’ in the English translation (cf. also Sigv Lv 15/7). For a similar, though not identical, quasi-adverbial usage of dælla, see Fritzner: dælla adv. What sort of a meeting is meant by fundr, and between whom, is not clear, and deliberate ambiguity cannot be ruled out. Bjarni Einarsson in ÍF 29 thinks it refers to the impending battle, though why this should be more likely if the king gets away is not clear. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson in ÍF 27 suggests it is between the poet and the king, which at least fits with the more personal tone of l. 3.