Stǫng óð gylld, þars gengum
Gǫndlar serks und merkjum
gnýs, fyr gǫfgum ræsi,
greiðendr á skip reiðir.
Þági vas, sem þessum
þengils, á jó strengjar,
mjǫð, fyr malma kveðju,
mær heiðþegum bæri.
Gylld stǫng óð fyr gǫfgum ræsi, þars gengum, greiðendr gnýs serks Gǫndlar, reiðir á skip und merkjum. Vas þági á jó strengjar fyr kveðju malma, sem mær bæri þessum heiðþegum þengils mjǫð.
The gilded standard advanced before the noble king, where we, suppliers of the din of the shirt of Gǫndul <valkyrie> [MAIL-SHIRT > BATTLE > WARRIORS], went enraged onto the ships under the banners. It was not then on the horse of the rope [SHIP], before the greeting of metal weapons [BATTLE], as if a maiden were bringing these retainers of the prince mead.
[8] heiðþegum: ‘heiþengvm’ U; ‑þegum: ‑dregum R686ˣ, J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 75a, ‘‑þægvm’ 972ˣ, 68, 325VII, ‑drǫgum 325VI, 73aˣ, 78aˣ, ‘‑sæfum’ 61, ‘‑þe᷎giom’ Holm4, ‘‑þægnat’ 325V
[5, 6, 7, 8] sem mær bæri þessum heiðþegum þengils mjǫð ‘as if a maiden were bringing these retainers of the prince mead’: Contrasting the perils of battle with the comforts of the hall (here the woman welcoming victorious warriors) is a favourite skaldic theme. The metaphorical base-words of the battle-kennings in the helmingr may allude to the maiden’s greeting (kveðju, l. 7) to the warrior, who arrives on horseback (jó, l. 6). — [8] heiðþegum ‘retainers’: The correct reading is difficult to establish (see Jesch 2001a, 235-7 for full discussion). The word heið is explained by the comment in SnE that heiðfé heitir máli ok gjǫf er hǫfðingjar gefa ‘heið-money is the name of the wages and gift that chieftains give’ (SnE 1998, I, 81; cf. LP: 2. heið f.). The alternative reading heimdregum ‘stay-at-homes’ can be explained as stigmatising those who did not support the king. But possibly some other word has been garbled in all witnesses. Jesch (loc. cit.) proposes heimþegum ‘persons given a home’, a comitatus term that occurs in Danish runic inscriptions; it is not attested in the skaldic corpus or OWN but given Sigvatr’s lexical eclecticism elsewhere he might well have used such a word.