Allvalds nutu aldir;
una líkar vel slíku;
skyldr lézk hendi at halda
hann of Nóregs mǫnnum.
En Sveinn konungr sunnan
sagðr es dauðr, en auðir
— fátt bilar flestra ýta
fár — hans býir vôru.
Aldir nutu allvalds; vel líkar una slíku; hann lézk skyldr at halda hendi of mǫnnum Nóregs. En Sveinn konungr es sagðr dauðr sunnan, en býir hans vôru auðir; fár flestra ýta bilar fátt.
Men benefited from the mighty ruler; it is most pleasing to be content with such a situation; he declared himself obliged to hold a hand over the people of Norway. But King Sveinn is reported from the south to be dead, and his dwellings to have been desolate; misfortune scarcely spares most men.
[6] en: so J1ˣ, 61, 53, Bb, hinn Kˣ, F, Flat, FskBˣ, enn J2ˣ, 54, 325VIII 2 g, með 325XI 2 i, hinn er FskAˣ
[6] en … auðir ‘and … desolate’: Auðir ‘desolate’, the reading of F, is required as the complement of býir vôru ‘dwellings to be’ and is generally adopted by eds. The report that settlements are auðir ‘desolate’ is presumably meant figuratively, though a more literal sense is possible, given the traditional connection between good rule and prosperity in the land, or bad rule and desolation (e.g. Eyv Lv 12-14, Eskál Vell 17). As noted in Hkr 1893-1901, IV, the statement here recalls Hfr ErfÓl 28/1-2, where the skald laments that lǫnd eru orðin auð ‘lands have been desolated’ by the death of Óláfr Tryggvason (cf. also Eyv Hák 20/5). Ms. Kˣ, and other mss across the stemmata, read hinn/enn auði ‘the wealthy’, which can be regarded as a lectio facilior. — [6, 8] en býir hans vôru auðir ‘and his dwellings to have been desolate’: Vôru appears to be the past inf. of vesa ‘to be’, forming an acc. with past inf. construction following a verb of reporting which is extrapolated from es sagðr ‘is reported’ (rather than depending directly on it). Vôru is less likely to be 3rd pers. pl. pret. indic. ‘were’, since this would entail a change of tense from pres. es sagðr to pret., and a switch from report to direct assertion.