Telja hátt, es hittask,
hvartveggja mjǫk, seggir,
orð, þaus angra fyrða
allmjǫk, búendr snjallir.
Láta þeir, es þræta,
þegnar, allt í gegnum,
— svellr ofrhugi jǫfrum —
eigi brátt við sôttum.
Snjallir búendr hvartveggja telja mjǫk hátt orð, þaus angra fyrða allmjǫk, es seggir hittask. Þeir þegnar, es þræta allt í gegnum, láta eigi brátt við sôttum; ofrhugi svellr jǫfrum.
The brave farmers of both parties, when the men meet, speak very loudly words that offend peoplevery greatly. Those people who wrangle the whole way through accede not at all quickly to terms of settlement; rashness builds up in the kings.
[5] þræta: þetta F, þreyta H, þrænda Hr
[5] þræta ‘wrangle’: The alternative reading, þreyta ‘pursue, persist, persevere’ (so H), with connotations of strenuousness (cf. CVC: þreyta), also makes sense but has only isolated ms. support. But since þræta seems marginally the more obvious of the two words, there is an outside chance that here H has preserved a lectio difficilior that has been smoothed out in the rest of the paradosis.