Þá hurfu þeir aftur.
"Then they turned back."
'hurfu', pret.3.PL of 'hverfa' (the strong verb).
'leita undan' "to flee, escape"
One version of the ditty goes like this:
Eltu seggir...................Men chased
(allsatt var þat).............(that was very true)
einn einfting................some uniped
ofan til strandar,............down to the shore
en kynligr maðr...............but the strange man
kostaði rásar,................ran hard and fast,
hart ofstopi;.................the arrogant fellow;
heyr Karlsefni!...............hear, Karlsefni.
'kosta' "to try, exert oneself" governs the genitive: 'kosta rásar'
"to exert oneself in running", "to run fast". The version in Gordon
is the same except that for 'heyrðu' in place of 'heyr' -- same meaning.
But other versions, including this one from Netútgáfan, have 'hart of
stopir' in the 7th line: "hard over bumps" (cf. Lex. Poet. 'stop'
"ujævnhed"). The Skólavefurinn site paraphrases the whole strophe:
"Menn eltu einn einfætling niður til strandar, en sá einkennilegi
maður hljóp eins hratt og hann gat yfir allar ójöfnur. Er það dagsatt,
Karlsefni."