Sigv ErfÓl 19I/2 — fyr ‘in front’
Hǫrðs, síz hermenn firrðu
— hlíf raufsk fyr gram — lífi,
auðn at Engla stríði
ómjúk, konung sjúkan.
Ǫr brá Ôleifs fjǫrvi
ǫld, þars herr klauf skjǫldu;
folks odda gekk fylkir
fund, en Dagr helt undan.
Hǫrð, ómjúk auðn [e]s at stríði Engla, síz hermenn firrðu sjúkan konung lífi; hlíf raufsk fyr gram. Ǫr ǫld brá fjǫrvi Ôleifs, þars herr klauf skjǫldu; fylkir folks gekk fund odda, en Dagr helt undan.
There is a hard, unyielding desolation after [the death of] the opponent of the English [= Óláfr], since warriors removed the wounded king from life; the shield was sundered in front of the ruler. The bold troop destroyed the life of Óláfr, where the army clove shields; the leader of the army advanced into the meeting of points [BATTLE], but Dagr headed away.
notes
[2] fyr gram ‘in front of the ruler’: Finnur Jónsson (Hkr 1893-1901, IV; Skj B) takes this instead as ‘by the king’, to give det hårde skjold kløvedes af kongen ‘the hard shield was sundered by the king’. However, this assumes a non-standard sense of fyr and sits uneasily with the otherwise elegaic tone of this stanza. A further possibility is that fyr has the sense ‘to the disadvantage or disfavour of’ (LP: fyr, fyrir B4).