Máttr es munka dróttins
mestr; aflar goð flestu;
Kristr skóp ríkr ok reisti
Róms hǫll verǫld alla.
Máttr dróttins munka es mestr; goð aflar flestu; ríkr Kristr skóp alla verǫld ok reisti hǫll Róms.
The power of the lord of monks [= God] is greatest; God brings everything about; the mighty Christ created the whole world and raised up the hall of Rome.
[1] dróttins munka ‘of the lord of monks [= God]’: Meissner (Meissner 369) comments that early kennings for God or Christ such as this, konungr Róms ‘king of Rome’ (Eil Frag 1/3, 4) and gramr Jórðánar ‘prince of the Jordan’ (Sigv ErfÓl 28/2I) register a sense of the strangeness (das fremdartige) of the idea of the Christian god, which however soon phases out.
case: gen.