Ek hef óðar lokri,
ǫlstafna, þér skafna,
væn mǫrk, — skala verki
vandr — stefknarrar branda.
Ek hef skafna þér branda stefknarrar lokri óðar, væn mǫrk ǫlstafna; verki skala vandr.
I have smoothed the bows of the refrain-ship [DRÁPA > UPPHAF] for you with the plane of poetry [TONGUE], beautiful forest of ale-prows [DRINKING HORNS > WOMAN]; the poem should not be difficult.
[1] óðar lokri: ‘o[…]’ U
[1] lokri óðar ‘with the plane of poetry [TONGUE]’: In accordance with the comparison of composing poetry with building a ship, the tongue as the tool of poetry is paraphrased by the nýgerving ‘plane of poetry’. A similar kenning, ómunlokri ‘with the voice-plane’, is found in Egill Arkv 15/2V (Eg 111); see Note to l. 2 there.
case: dat.