Vegg blæss veðr of tyggja;
viðr þolir nauð í lauðri;
læ tekr klungrs at knýja
keip en gelr í reipum.
Mjór* skelfr — Magnús stýrir —
— móð skerr eik at flóði —
(beit verða sæ slíta)
sjautøgr vǫndr (und rǫndu).
Veðr blæss vegg of tyggja; viðr þolir nauð í lauðri; læ klungrs tekr at knýja keip en gelr í reipum. Mjór* sjautøgr vǫndr skelfr; Magnús stýrir; móð eik skerr at flóði; beit verða slíta sæ und rǫndu.
The storm-wind fills the sail above the sovereign; the timber suffers distress in the foam; the destroyer of bramble [WIND] begins to beat against the rowlock and roars in the ropes. The slender seventy-measure mast trembles; Magnús steers; the weary oak-ship cleaves the water; boats must lacerate the sea beneath the shields.
[5, 8] mjór* sjautøgr vǫndr (m. nom. sg.) ‘the slender seventy-measure mast’: (a) For this interpretation, see Foote 1978, 65. (b) Sveinbjörn Egilsson (LP 1860: sjötögr) believed that this designated the number of masts in the fleet. However, as Foote (1978, 65) points out, the sg. sjautøgr vǫndr is not ‘seven decades of masts’ but ‘a mast of seven decades’. (c) Skj B and Skald take vǫndr to mean ‘oar’ (‘seventy slender oars’ lit. ‘a slender oar in the measure of seventy’), but vǫndr means ‘mast’ and is not attested in the meaning ‘oar’; see Falk 1912, 56. Furthermore, the st. describes Magnús’s sailing in strong winds, which is incompatible with the ship being propelled by seventy slender oars.