Saddi jarl, þars odda
ofþing saman gingu,
(vann Hanga vals hungri)
hrafna (byrgis nafni).
Morðskýja* varð mávi
Mistar gótt til vista
heiðins dóms at háða
hríð við markar síðu.
Jarl saddi hrafna, þars ofþing odda gingu saman; nafni byrgis vann hungri vals Hanga. Varð gótt til vista mávi Mistar við síðu markar heiðins dóms at háða hríð morðskýja*.
The jarl sated the ravens, where the mighty assemblies of barbs [BATTLES] came together; the namesake of the protector [= Hákon] overcame the hunger of the falcon of Hangi <= Óðinn> [RAVEN]. It became good for provisions for the seagull of Mist <valkyrie> [RAVEN/EAGLE] by the coast of the forest of heathendom [NORWAY] after the storm of killing-clouds [SHIELDS > BATTLE] [was] waged.
[7, 8] markar heiðins dóms ‘of the forest of heathendom [NORWAY]’: The basis of the kenning appears to be that the part of Norway controlled by Hákon jarl represented the strongest bastion of heathendom, in contradistinction to Denmark and the districts in Norway controlled by Denmark, where Christianity was assuming dominance (Fms 12; LP (1860): mörk 2; cf. Finnur Jónsson 1886b, 342). This attestation of heiðinn dómr, which is among the first in ON, seems to acknowledge paganism as a religion distinct from kristindómr ‘Christianity’, a loan from OE which is unrecorded before the early C11th (Abrams 1998, 111-12, 124).