The author of the tale gives a free, poetical translation, as follows:
The steel is sharp, the edge is fine,
It’s severed many a tough design,
The word is sure, the word is pure,
A light e’en in the midnight hour,
Let steel and word for ever gird
And be to her a shield and sword.
Literally the formula has to be translated thus (with one or two doubtful words): The steel is sharp and fine, the sickle is always sharp; the word is certain and pure, a glimpse of light in the darkest hour. Let the steel and the sword always guard her and appear to her as a protection (a shield?), a sword.
u in “stuhl”, from O.N. stál, n., steel, denotes, in this case, a close o-sound [ô]. a in “sachel” probably expresses an e-sound, open pronunciation of English sickle, sb. “emer” is possibly Germ. immer. “snean” is sni̇̄en, cutting, from sni, vb., to chip, cut; O.N. sníða. v for w in “vird”, L.Scottish wird, word, is probably due to consciousness of the fact that initial w in Eng. corresponds to v in the old Norn. “sicer” means sicker, i.e. certain.
“mirk-as-dim”, accepted as a compound of three words, must be “mirkastim”, dat. masc. sing. of the indef. superlative form of mirk, O.N. myrkr, adj., dark. “hura”, Eng. hour, replaces an older (Norn) word of the masc. gender, which the form “mirkastim” shows.
The first part has doubtless run: *i mirkastim tima, O.N. í myrkastum tíma, in the darkest hour.
gyrda is older girða = gerða, vb., to guard, protect, which meaning suits better than to gird with, O.N. gyrða.
skyla is rather O.N. skýli, n., protection (= skäil2, sb., skøl, vb., in Dictionary) than the word shield (O.N. skjǫldr), though the author has “shield” in his poetical translation. svirda is O.N. sverð and L.Scottish swird, a sword.
Considering the fossilized Norn forms in it, the formula was probably first composed in that language.
A burial Formula.
An ancient burial formula, used at St. Olav’s church at Ness in North Yell even into the 18th century, is noted down by Thomas Irvine of Midbrekk (N. Yell) in the MS. “Zetlandic Memoranda”, preserved in the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.
It is specially interesting to note that this formula is in the Danish language and not in the usual Norn of the Isles, as is seen from some words in it. Th. Irvine has recorded the formula as follows:
