Höfðum lét of hrundit
hundmörgum gramr undir,
at feigum bör fólka
fingi eldr yfir syngja.
Hvat skyli beð enn betra
böðheggr und sik leggja?
Olli d*ýrr við orðstír
allvaldr jö*furs falli.
Gramr lét hundmörgum höfðum of hrundit undir, at eldr fingi syngja yfir feigum bör fólka. Hvat skyli böðheggr leggja und sik enn betra beð? D*ýrr allvaldr olli falli jö*furs við orðstír.
The leader allowed a great many heads to be thrust under him, so that fire would have a chance to sing over the doomed tree of battles [WARRIOR]. How could a battle-tree [WARRIOR] place beneath himself an even better bed? The mighty ruler caused a prince’s death with renown.
[5] enn ‘even’: The ms. reading ‘en̄’ is taken here (as by Olsen (Ragn 1906-8, 215), Eskeland (Ragn 1944) and Ebel (Ragn 2003)), as the intensive adv. en(n) ‘still, even’, used before a comp., hence ‘an even better bed’. It is taken by CPB and others as an archaic form of the def. art. (h)inn, hence ‘the better bed’.