Varða, gims sem gerði
Gerðr bjúglimum herða
— gnýr óx Fjǫlnis fúra —
farlig sæing jarli,
þás hringfôum Hanga
hrynserk Viðurr brynju
— hruðusk riðmarar Róða
rastar — varð at kasta.
Varða, sem farlig Gerðr gims gerði jarli sæing bjúglimum herða — gnýr fúra Fjǫlnis óx —, þás Viðurr brynju varð at kasta hringfôum hrynserk Hanga; riðmarar rastar Róða hruðusk.
It did not come about as if an attractive Gerðr <goddess> of the fire [WOMAN] made a bed for the jarl with her curving branches of the shoulders [ARMS] — the din of the fires of Fjǫlnir <= Óðinn> [SWORDS > BATTLE] increased —, when the Viðurr <= Óðinn> of the mail-shirt [WARRIOR = Hákon] had to throw off his ring-depleted clanging shirt of Hangi <= Óðinn> [MAIL-SHIRT]; the riding horses of the path of Róði <sea-king> [SEA > SHIPS] were cleared.
[6] hrynserk Viðurr: hrynserks viðum 39, F, ‘hreyn særk niþum’ J1ˣ, hrynserk viðum 61, R, W, ‘hrím serkiudum’ 54, Bb, ‘hrím serkur nidur um merke’ 510, hring serk viðum Tˣ, ‘hryn serk við a(v)rr’ U, hrynserkr viðum A, ‘hrymserks vidum’ C
[6] Viðurr brynju ‘the Viðurr <= Óðinn> of the mail-shirt [WARRIOR = Hákon]’: (a) This solution is adopted by Sveinbjörn Egilsson (Fms 12; SHI 11; LP (1860): Viðurr), followed by Finnur Jónsson (1886b, 321; Skj B; LP: Viðurr) and Kock (Skald), on the basis of the Kˣ reading and further partial support from U and 510. (b) Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (ÍF 26) prefers the majority reading viðum brynju ‘for/to the trees of the mail-shirt [WARRIORS]’, construed as a dat. of persons affected modifying hruðusk ‘were cleared’, thus ‘were cleared of men’ (cf. SnE 1998, I, 68). But parallels to such an idiom are not attested, as Bjarni himself notes, and it is reasonable to suppose that a heiti for a god has been garbled here, as frequently in the ms. tradition.
case: nom.