Steinn Óldr 1II/1 — Þjóð ‘people’
Þjóð fórsk mǫrg í móðu;
menn drukknuðu sukknir;
drengr lá ár of ungan
ófár Mǫrukára.
Fila dróttinn rak flótta
framr; tók herr á ramri
rôs fyr rǫskum vísa.
Ríklundaðr veit undir.
Mǫrg þjóð fórsk í móðu; sukknir menn drukknuðu; ófár drengr lá ár of ungan Mǫrukára. Framr dróttinn Fila rak flótta; herr tók á ramri rôs fyr rǫskum vísa. Ríklundaðr veit undir….
Many people died in the river; submerged men drowned; not a few warriors soon lay [dead] around young Morcere. The outstanding lord of the Filir [NORWEGIAN KING = Óláfr] pursued those who fled; the army broke into a frantic run before the bold ruler. Proud-minded knows beneath [the sun]….
notes
[1] mǫrg þjóð fórsk í móðu ‘many people died in the river’: Both Engl. sources and Anon Harst mention that people died in a river or marsh. See also Jones 2007, 173-95. The brook that now runs through the battlefield, the Germany Beck, certainly does not fit the description of a river in which people could have drowned (even allowing for topographical change since 1066), and Jones (2007, 193) suggests that high tide could have brought surges of muddy water from the Ouse up to the ford after the battle, thus creating a spectacle of fallen bodies pressed into the mud appearing to have drowned.