Gyrðisk hála herðum
heldr síðarla á kveldi
glaumkennandi gunnar
glaðr véttrima* naðri.
Drengr réð dýrr á vangi
— dagr rofnaðisk — sofna
ítrs landreka undir
ógnfimr berum himni.
Glaðr glaumkennandi gunnar gyrðisk hála herðum naðri véttrima* heldr síðarla á kveldi. Dýrr ógnfimr drengr ítrs landreka réð sofna á vangi undir berum himni; dagr rofnaðisk.
The happy noise-tester of battle [WARRIOR] girded himself with the well-hardened snake of sword-rings [SWORD] rather late in the evening. The valuable, battle-deft soldier of the splendid land-ruler [= Byzantine emperor] decided to sleep in a field in the open air [lit. under the bare sky]; the day was waning.
[7] landreka ‘[of the] land-ruler’: According to Snorri Sturluson (Hkr, ÍF 28, 370), this man was the Byzantine emperor Kirjalax, who was identified by Metcalfe (1881, 76 n. 6) as Alexios I Komnenos, who reigned 1081-1118. More recently, however, Benedikz (1978, 122) has proposed an identity with Alexios’s son John II Komnenos.