Óláfr allra jǫfra
óttlaust ok nam brjóta
varghollr Vinða borgir
vestr hernað rak mestan.
Hrælinns hverju sinni
hljómváttandi knátti
sóknbráðr sigri ráða
Svǫlnis dóms í rómu.
Varghollr Óláfr rak vestr mestan hernað allra jǫfra ok nam óttlaust brjóta borgir Vinða. Sóknbráðr hrælinns hljómváttandi knátti ráða sigri hverju sinni í rómu dóms Svǫlnis.
Wolf-gracious Óláfr pursued in the west the greatest raiding campaign of any ruler and began fearlessly to destroy the strongholds of the Wends. The attack-swift witness of the noise of the corpse-serpent [(lit. ‘noise-witness of the corpse-serpent’) SWORD > BATTLE > WARRIOR] won victory every time in the tumult of the verdict of Svǫlnir <= Óðinn> [BATTLE].
[8] Svǫlnis dóms: snælinns dóm 53
[6, 8] -váttandi; dóms ‘witness; of the verdict’: This is the only record of váttandi ‘witness’ in the skaldic corpus, and as the base-word of the warrior-kenning it extends the legal metaphor established by dóms ‘verdict’, base-word of the battle-kenning. Such legal vocabulary is relatively rare, though cf. Hókr Eirfl 6/8 vápneiðr ‘weapon-oath [BATTLE]’, and see Notes to Hfr ErfÓl 8/1, 8/4. — [8] í rómu dóms Svǫlnis ‘in the tumult of the verdict of Svǫlnir <= Óðinn> [BATTLE]’: This seems the best solution, though the expression is somewhat overloaded, since róma ‘tumult’ most frequently functions as a heiti for ‘battle’ (LP: róma 2). Editions based on ÓT (Fms 12, 36; Skj B) take it in that sense, and construe sannfróðr ‘truly wise’ with dóms Svǫlnis, hence ‘truly wise or skilled in battle’.
case: gen.