Hér settu mik sveina milli,
heldr hæðinna ok hvítbránna.
Skelkja skatnar ok skaup draga,
ófs óframir, at jöfurs greppi.
Hér settu mik milli sveina, heldr hæðinna ok hvítbránna. Skatnar skelkja ok draga skaup, ófs óframir, at greppi jöfurs.
Here they set me between serving men, rather mocking and white-eyelashed. The fellows mock and, exceedingly cautious, hold the prince’s poet up to ridicule.
[7] ófs óframir ‘exceedingly cautious’: This edn understands this adjectival phrase, referring to Starkaðr’s insulters, as ironic, possibly litotic. Ófs ‘exceedingly’ is often used as an intensifier with adjectives, while óframr ‘cautious’ is well attested (cf. Sigv Berv 15/3II). Kock (FF §28) suggests ófs óframir means som stora uslingar ‘as great villains’. The ms.’s ‘öframer’ is interpreted as oframmir by Skj B in the sense ‘very strong’, and the whole phrase understood to mean stærke i deres overdrevne adfærd ‘strong in their exaggerated behaviour’.