Ǫrbjóðr átta skeiðum
efsta sinn ok þrinnum
(byrr varð) beita þorði
(brýnn) ór Þrándheims mynni.
Ormr skreið (árar knúði)
ǫlna vang inn langi
(hirð prúð); hilmir stýrði.
Hann vas ríkstr konungmanna.
Ǫrbjóðr þorði beita efsta sinn átta ok þrinnum skeiðum ór mynni Þrándheims; byrr varð brýnn. Ormr inn langi skreið vang ǫlna; prúð hirð knúði árar; hilmir stýrði. Hann vas ríkstr konungmanna …
The arrow-offerer [WARRIOR] dared a final time to sail eight and three warships to windward out from the mouth of Trondheimsfjorden; the wind became sharp. Ormr inn langi (‘the Long Serpent’) slithered over the field of fish [SEA]; the valiant retinue thrust on the oars; the ruler steered. He was the mightiest of royal men …
[4] brýnn: ‘brynnt’ Flat
[4] brýnn ‘sharp’: Konráð Gíslason (1895-7), followed by Skj B, reads brynn ‘sharp’ to provide an exact rhyme with mynni ‘mouth’, but the hendingar in Rst are not perfectly regular (see Introduction to Rst) and unequal vowel length is found sporadically in hendingar throughout the skaldic corpus (see ‘Normalisation resulting from linguistic changes’ in General Introduction).