Hskv Útdr 1II/3 — vígôsum ‘the protective plankings’
Ok fádýrir fóru
Fjǫlnis hróts at móti
— vígôsum hlóð vísi —
víkingar gram ríkjum.
Náði herr at hrjóða
— hlaut drengja vinr fengi
fyrðum hollr, þars fellat
fátt lið — galeiðr átta.
Ok fádýrir víkingar fóru at móti Fjǫlnis hróts ríkjum gram; vísi hlóð vígôsum. Herr náði at hrjóða átta galeiðr; vinr drengja, hollr fyrðum, hlaut fengi, þars fátt lið fellat.
And the ignoble vikings went to the meeting of Fjǫlnir’s <= Óðinn’s> roof [SHIELD > BATTLE] with the mighty monarch; the prince set up the protective plankings. The army was able to clear eight galleys; the friend of the warriors [= Sigurðr], devoted to the people, seized loot where not a few troops fell.
notes
[3] vígôsum ‘protective plankings’: Vígáss was a plank on board the ship that was used to support the víggyrðill, the protecting board-wall which was fastened on the inner side of the gunwale to increase its height during enemy attacks at sea (see Falk 1912, 13, 116). Skj B separates the two elements of the cpd and takes the first element with ríkjum ‘mighty’ (l. 4) (at móti vígríkjum gram ‘to the meeting with the battle-mighty monarch’), whereas the second element is construed as part of a kenning for ‘warriors’ (vísi hlóð sum Fjǫlnis hróts ‘the lord stacked the gods of Fjǫlnir’s roof’ (ll. 3-4)). That reading causes a very convoluted w. o. Kock (NN §§964, 2990C) construes the warrior-kenning vígsum Fjǫlnis hróts ‘the battle-gods of Fjǫlnir’s roof’ (i.e. ‘the battle-gods of the shield’) as an object of the verb hlaða ‘set up, stack, kill’ (so also ÍF 28), but that kenning is hyperdetermined since sum Fjǫlnis hróts ‘the gods of Fjǫlnir’s roof’ is a kenning for ‘warriors’.