Answer

Basically the subject, i.e. the person who is being told to pass on the message of the Vikings, is left unexpressed. We know from the context of the poem that it is the Viking messenger, the 'ar' of line 26 but this is not made explicit at this point. We would expect l. 30a to read 'they commended me to tell you' but there is clearly no word for 'me' here. Instead, if we are to keep exactly to the Old English, we would translate this uncomfortably as 'they commended to make known to you'. For more information on why this is so see M&R p. 75 (§161).

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