Þats dullaust,
hvé Danir gerðu
dyggva fǫr
með dǫglingi.
Þar vas jarl
fyrst at upphafi,
ok hverr maðr,
es honum fylgði,
annarr drengr
ǫðrum betri.
Þats dullaust, hvé Danir gerðu dyggva fǫr með dǫglingi. Þar vas jarl fyrst at upphafi, ok hverr maðr, es fylgði honum, annarr drengr, betri ǫðrum.
It is without concealment, how the Danes made a faithful journey with the monarch [= Sveinn]. There the jarl [= Haraldr Þorkelsson] was first and foremost, and every man who followed him, each warrior, [was] better than the next.
[6] at upphafi ‘at the start’: Upphaf is a technical term for the first part of a drápa, so there may be some poetic play here as Þórarinn uses the term in the stanza which (at least now) opens his poem. The word can also mean ‘advancement, honour’ (Fritzner: upphaf 1; CVC: upphaf 3), so the line might be understood as ‘foremost in honour’.