Sagðr vas lýðum ok landrekum
myrk* at ráða mǫrg rǫk fyrir.
Kærr vas hann kristnu kynni þjóðar;
vasat á moldu maðr vitrari.
Sagðr vas at ráða mǫrg myrk* rǫk fyrir lýðum ok landrekum. Hann vas kærr kristnu kynni þjóðar; vitrari maðr vasat á moldu.
He was said to interpret many obscure signs before the people and rulers. He was dear to the Christian family of people; there was not a wiser man on earth.
[1] Sagðr: ‘Sagði’ refreshed from Sagðr Hb
[1] sagðr vas ‘he was said’: Merl 2012 adopts the refreshed reading sagði ‘[he] said’, but this is to put too much faith in the refresher, when traces of earlier <r> are still visible. Instead of the ms.’s ‘var’ (normalised here to vas), Merl 2012 reads við, translated as im Hinblick auf ‘in respect of’. But the refresher’s abbreviation directly above ms. <v>, interpreted as ‘-ið’ by Merl 2012, is followed to the right by a clearly legible unrefreshed abbreviation for ‘-ar’, as is in fact conceded by Merl 2012.