Þat var fyrst, er fórum,
— Freys leika tók ek heyja —
þar er einiga áttum
öld, í Rómaveldi.
Þar lét ek of grön grána
— gall örn of valfalli —
at mannskæðu morði
mitt sverð dregit verða.
Þat var fyrst, er fórum í Rómaveldi, þar er áttum einiga öld; ek tók heyja leika Freys. Þar lét ek sverð mitt verða dregit of grána grön at mannskæðu morði; örn gall of valfalli.
The first thing was that we went into the realm of Rome, where we had no allies; I proceeded to conduct the games of Freyr <god> [BATTLES]. There I let my sword be drawn across a grey moustache in man-harming combat; an eagle screamed above fallen slain.
[2] leika Freys ‘the games of Freyr <god> [BATTLES]’: Battle-kennings with leikr ‘game, sport’ as their base-word most often have a determinant referring to weapons, and the legendary figure Hildr also occurs, but only rarely the name of a god (Meissner 199). Yggr, a name for Óðinn, occurs once as a determinant with leikr as base-word, in Anon Pl 34/3VII; and Freys, gen., occurs twice, once here and once in Þhorn Harkv 6/4I. As well as being a god of fertility, Freyr is described as ‘battle-skilled’ (bǫðfróðr) in ÚlfrU Húsdr 7/2III.