ǪrvOdd Ævdr 5VIII (Ǫrv 75)/8 — nú ‘now’
Búinn léz Ásmundr opt meðan lifði,
málmþings vanr, mér at fylgja.
Sagða ek karli, at ek koma mundak
aptr aldrigi; nú em ek orðrofi.
Ásmundr, vanr málmþings, léz opt búinn at fylgja mér meðan lifði. Ek sagða karli, at ek mundak aldrigi aptr koma; nú em ek orðrofi.
Ásmundr, accustomed to the weapon-meeting [BATTLE], often said he was prepared to follow me as long as he lived. I told the old man that I would never come back; now I have broken my word.
notes
[8] nú em ek orðrofi ‘now have I broken my word’: Lit. ‘now I am a word-breaker’. Oddr speaks this with the wisdom of hindsight; he has returned to Berurjóðr although as a young man he swore never to do so, in order to frustrate the sibyl’s prophecy that he would meet his death there. Orðrofi is a hap. leg., while 173ˣ’s eiðrofi ‘oath-breaker’ occurs in GunnLeif Merl II 18/3, as well as in two eddic locations, Brot 16/12 and Helr 5/8.