Ljós mun lýðum ljóðbók vesa;
þós í frœði flest at ráða,
þats fyrir jǫfurr ǫldum sagði
brezkri þjóðu; nú skal brag kveða.
Ljóðbók mun vesa ljós lýðum; þós flest at ráða í frœði, þats jǫfurr sagði brezkri þjóðu fyrir ǫldum; nú skal kveða brag.
The song-book will be clear to men; yet most [of it] is to be interpreted by means of wisdom that ages ago the leader imparted to the British people; now the poem shall be recited.
[5, 6] fyrir ǫldum ‘ages ago’: This interpretation follows Skj B. Kock, followed by Merl 2012, objects to the complicated word order and instead proposes, with parallels from West Germanic poetry, that ǫldum and brezkri þjóðu (l. 6) should be read as in apposition (NN §93): vad fursten forutsagt för människorna, för det bretonska folket ‘what the leader prophesied before men, before the British people’. But Gunnlaugr occasionally uses complex word orders (cf. I 13/5-10, I 54/9-12, I 63/5-8), whereas the typically West Germanic style of variation imputed to him by Kock is nowhere unmistakably exemplified.