Eyjólfi ber, elfar
úlfseðjandi, kveðju
heim, þás hánum sómi
heyra bezt með eyrum,
þvít skilmildra skalda
skǫrungmann lofak ǫrvan;
hann lifi sælstr und sólu
sannauðigra manna.
Elfar úlfseðjandi, ber Eyjólfi heim kveðju, þás sómi hánum bezt heyra með eyrum, þvít lofak ǫrvan skǫrungmann skilmildra skalda; lifi hann sælstr sannauðigra manna und sólu.
Feeder of the wolf of the river [(lit. ‘wolf-feeder of the river’) SHIP > SEAFARER], carry home my greeting to Eyjólfr, which it befits him best to hear with his own ears, since I praise the energetic champion among poets, generous with knowledge; may he live the happiest of truly rich men under the sun.
[1] Eyjólfi ‘to Eyjólfr’: The prose text of FoGT (FoGT 1884, 127) identifies Eyjólfr as brvna son, skaalld einkar gott ok bv þegn góðr en eigi féríkr ‘the son of Brúni, an exceptionally good poet and a good farmer although not a wealthy one’. This detailed characterisation, unusual for the treatise, may perhaps indicate that the author of FoGT did not expect his audience to know anything about Eyjólfr. Only one helmingr by Eyjólfr Brúnason has survived (EBrún Lv). It is a rather amusing helmingr about a seafarer who buys a pair of Norwegian shoes, snekkjur ilja ‘warships of footsoles’, and is not dissimilar in tone to Snorri’s stanza.