Ein drepr fyr mér allri
— ótrauðr á lǫg skeiðum
ǫrr þengill bað ýta —
ítrmanns kona teiti.
Góð ætt of kemr grimmu
— gekk herr á skip, darra
hinn er kunni gný gerva —
gœðings at mér stríði.
Ein kona ítrmanns drepr allri teiti fyr mér; ótrauðr ǫrr þengill bað ýta skeiðum á lǫg. Góð ætt gœðings of kemr grimmu stríði at mér; herr, hinn er kunni gerva gný darra, gekk á skip.
A certain nobleman’s wife kills all joy for me; the not-unwilling swift prince [Vagn] ordered ships to be launched onto the sea. The good kinswoman of a chieftain brings cruel torment upon me; the army, which knew how to make the din of spears [BATTLE], went aboard the ships.
[4] kona ítrmanns ‘nobleman’s wife’: The marital status of the longed-for woman is not disclosed until this point; she is also of good descent (ll. 5, 8). Passionate admiration or love for an unobtainable woman is one of the staple themes of medieval French troubadour poetry (and romance more generally) and it is found in Old Norse poetry and prose from at least the C12th, though scholars have held differing opinions as to whether the love-theme in Old Norse owes its existence to direct influence from troubadour poetry (Andersson 1969; Bjarni Einarsson 1971; Finlay 1995).