Þós þess máls,
es ek mæla hygg,
meiri hlutr
miklu eptir.
Nú skal þat
þaðan af greiða
jǫfra kyns,
es enn lifir.
Þós eptir miklu meiri hlutr þess máls, es ek hygg mæla. Skal nú þaðan af greiða þat kyns jǫfra, es enn lifir.
Yet there is a much greater part left of the story which I intend to tell. I shall now, henceforth, present that [story] of the kin of princes which still lives.
[5] þat: því Flat
[5] þat (n. acc. sg.) ‘that’: Því (n. dat. sg.) has been emended to þat with most earlier eds, because greiða ‘present, elucidate, expound’ (l. 6) takes the acc. Þat qualifies an understood mál ‘story’. See also Note to st. 73/3. The poet has so far recounted the lives of the kings of Norway from Haraldr hárfagri to Magnús inn góði according to Sæmundr’s history. But Magnús did not leave behind an heir who could succeed him on the Norw. throne; rather, the next king, Haraldr harðráði Sigurðarson (the great-great-grandfather of Jón Loptsson), traced his ancestry to Haraldr hárfagri through Sigurðr hrísi (see the next st.). Hence the poet now must back-paddle and begin a new story (mál) that has a direct bearing on the Oddaverjar, ‘the kin of princes which still lives’.