ESk Geisl 26VII/3 — áðr ‘earlier’
Mál fekk maðr, þars hvílir
margfríðr jǫfurr, síðan,
áðr sás orða hlýru
afskurðr farit hafði.
Frægð ríðr fylkis Egða
folksterks af því verki;
jǫfurs snilli fremsk alla
ungs á danska tungu.
Síðan fekk maðr mál, þars margfríðr jǫfurr hvílir, sás afskurðr hlýru orða hafði áðr farit. Frægð folksterks fylkis Egða ríðr af því verki; snilli ungs jǫfurs fremsk á alla danska tungu.
Then a man gained speech, where the very beautiful king rests, whose cut-off piece of the ship-bow of words [TONGUE] had earlier been destroyed. The fame of the army-strong leader of the Egðir [= Óláfr] travels because of that deed; the honour of the young king is advanced in the whole Norse tongue.
notes
[3-4]: There are two possible readings of these ll., one following Flat and the other Bb. Following Flat: maðr, sás afskurðr hlýru orða hafði áðr farit (as in translation above), the reading requires one to assume a r : ð rhyme (cf. Kuhn 1983, 79). Following Bb: maðr, sás áðr hafði farit afskýfðr hlýðu orða ‘the man who earlier had gone deprived of the shipboard of words [TONGUE]’. The rhyme here is acceptable (áðr : hlýðu) and hlýða ‘ship’s planking’ is the difficilior lectio (for this reading, see Skald and NN §2536). Einarr uses a similarly nautical tongue-kenning, r óðar ‘oar of poetry’, in 40/7-8.