Meyjar bað men-Týr
mætrar; sá er fágiætr;
hljótr fekk við hryggbrot
hásætrs votar nætr.
Krafti var ok konu sviftr
kauði; var hann þess trauðr;
slík gjöraz mál mjó
mærðar í skaup færð.
Men-Týr – sá er fágiætr – bað mætrar meyjar; hljótr hásætrs fekk votar nætr við hryggbrot. Kauði var sviftr krafti ok konu; hann var trauðr þess; slík mjó mál gjöraz færð í skaup mærðar.
The Týr <god> of the neck-ring [MAN] – he’s a rare one – asked for [the hand of] a splendid girl; the receiver of the rowing-bench [SEAFARER] had wet nights on account of the refusal. The wretch was deprived of strength and the woman; he was averse to this; such slight affairs get mocked in verse.
[2] sá er fágiætr ‘he’s a rare one’: Lit. ‘he is rarely obtained’. An ironic expression of admiration, perhaps marking the negative insinuation of the antecedent cpd men-Týr ‘the Týr <god> of the neck-ring’ (l. 1). In his early edn, Finnur Jónsson (1886a, 192) translates the phrase as den sjældne mand ‘that rare man’ (cf. LP: fágætr), which he reads in a wholly positive light. In Skj B he reinterprets the phrase as an expression of open disapprobation; the revised translation, han opnår sjælden meget ‘he seldom achieves much’, is incorrect.