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.
[8] fár: fáir 325XI 2 i, Flat, FskBˣ
[7-8] fár flestra ýta bilar fátt ‘misfortune scarcely spares most men’: I.e. human sorrow is all but unavoidable. Bila ‘to fail, fail to appear’, is applied here to fár ‘misfortune, harm’ and hence in this context means ‘to spare’. Fátt ‘few’ may be taken as adverbial, ‘little, scarcely’, hence ‘the misfortune of most men scarcely fails’ (as in Translation above), or as an adj. qualifying fár, hence ‘little misfortune of most men fails’.