My academic year just started, and my teaching schedule isn't as
accommodating as sometimes, so I've done nothing but look at
the vísa.

Hvat skaltu, runnr, þótt rynnim,
randlinns, of sök minni
hagl dreif skarpt á Sköglar
skýjum, oss at frýja,
hinn er hélt, þá er hjalta
hátungur mjök sungu,
brynju meiðr til búðar
blauðr með skeggit rauða.

One editor takes the prose word-order to be as follows:

Hvat skaltu, randlinns runnr! at frýja oss, þótt rynnum -- hagl dreift
skarpt á Sköglar skýjum of minni sök --, blauðr brynju meiðr, hinn er
hélt til búðar með skeggit rauða, þá er hjalta hátungur sungu mjök.

<Randlinnr> is from <rönd> 'a shield' and <linnr> 'serpent': 'shield's
serpent' = 'sword'. <Runnr> 'a bush, a grove' is to be understood
as 'a bush' = 'a man': 'shield's serpent's man' = 'sword's man' =
'warrior'. <Rynnim> is 1st person pl. past subj. of <renna> 'to run'.
<Skarpt> modifies the neuter <hagl>. CV gives <Skögul>, gen.
<Sköglar>, as the name of a valkyrie; 'Skögul's cloud' = 'valkyrie's
cloud' = 'shield'. This suggests that the <skarpt hagl> 'sharp hail'
is arrows.

<Meiðr> 'a pole' is a kenning of 'a man'; presumably 'a coat-of-mail's
pole' is 'a warrior', and <blauðr brynju meiðr> is 'a cowardly warrior'.
<Halda til e-s staðar> is 'to stay somewhere'. <Hátunga> must be
a compound, 'loud-tongue', here in the nom. pl.; <hjalta> is the
gen. pl. of <hjalt> 'guard between hilt and blade; sword boss,
pommel', and <hjalta hátungur> 'hilt-guards' loud tongues' looks
like a kenning for 'blades'.

What will you, warrior, to reproach us, though we ran? (I.e., 'Why
do you reproach us, though we ran?') Arrows drove on shields for
lesser cause. (You) cowardly warrior, the one who stayed at (the)
booth, (the one) with the red beard, when blades sang much.


And here's an attempt at a near-literal translation:

What will you, though we ran, bush
of shield -- for lesser cause
hail drove sharp on Skögul's
clouds -- to reproach us,
the one who stayed when hilt-guards'
loud tongues sang much,
byrnie's pole, at (the) booth,
cowardly, with the red beard.

Brian