translator's scholarly notes and explanations. It is said that it was
often sung in Old Norse in North Ronaldsay until the middle of the
eighteenth century.

As translated it is as follows:--

DARRATHA-LIOD.

I.
Widely's warped
To warn of slaughter
The back-beam's rug--
Lo, blood is raining!
Now grey with spears
Is framed the web
Of human kind,
With red woof filled
By maiden friends
Of Randver's slayer.


II.
That web is warped
With human entrails,
And is hard weighted
With heads of people;
Bloodstained darts
Do for treadles,
The forebeam's ironbound
The reed's of arrows;