Réð mik ór vagni víf at kveðja,
ok þær hoddum mér hétu góðum.
Bað mik snót koma sumar it næsta;
léz þá at launum leita mundu.
Víf réð at kveðja mik ór vagni, ok þær hétu mér góðum hoddum. Snót bað mik koma it næsta sumar; léz þá mundu leita at launum.
A woman greeted me from a waggon, and they promised me fine treasures. The lady bade me come the following summer; she said she would then look for rewards.
[1-2]: Skj B emends mik ‘me’ (l. 1) to ek ‘I’, which is suffixed to the verb réð to make it 1st pers. sg. pret. (réðk) rather than 3rd pers. sg. pret., with víf ‘woman’ as subject, as here. Skj B construes: jeg talte til kvinden i vognen ‘I spoke to the woman in the waggon’. However, the mss’ unemended version as presented here (also in Ǫrv 1888, Skald, NN §2607 and FSGJ) makes better sense, partly because it foreshadows the agency of Ǫlvǫr in the second helmingr and partly because it enables a closer translation of ór vagni ‘from a waggon’ (rather than ‘in a waggon’). The change of person from sg. to pl. in ll. 3-4 (þær ‘they’ f. nom. pl.) presumably refers to Ǫlvǫr and her female companions, who are mentioned in the prose texts.