‘Lifir in danska drótt at holdi,
gerir eyvit sér ǫlðri at móti.
Því munu in tígnu tíðmǫrk himins
ljósi sínu frá lýð snúa.
‘In danska drótt lifir at holdi, gerir eyvit sér at móti ǫlðri. Því munu in tígnu tíðmǫrk himins snúa ljósi sínu frá lýð.
‘The Danish people will live on meat, do nothing to resist ale-drinking. Therefore the glorious time-markers of heaven [HEAVENLY BODIES] will turn their light away from the nation.
[1-2] in danska drótt ‘the Danish people’: The apparently anti-Danish polemics are Gunnlaugr’s contribution; the foundation of a metropolitan see in Norway in 1153 severed older allegiances of the Icelandic bishoprics with Lund in what was then Denmark (cf. Foote 1975, 73). However, the adj. dansk may sometimes apply to Scandinavians generally, especially in the phrase dǫnsk tunga ‘Danish tongue’, which acquired the generalised meaning ‘Scandinavian language’ at least as early as the C11th (cf. Sigv Víkv 15/8I and Note; see also SnE 1998, I, 52, 80).