ÞKolb Eirdr 10I/8 — býir ‘dwellings’
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.
readings
[8] býir: bœir J1ˣ, J2ˣ, 61, 53, 54, 325VIII 2 g, Bb, Flat, ‘bœ[…]’ 325XI 2 i, bœjar FskBˣ, bœr FskAˣ
notes
[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.