Anon Nikdr 3III/1 — Jón ‘John’
Jón laut í höll hreinum
hjarta sals hins bjarta
meyjar mannvitsfrægrar
mildingi bragninga.
Jón laut hreinum mildingi bragninga í höll hins bjarta sals hjarta mannvitsfrægrar meyjar.
John bowed to the pure ruler of princes [= God (= Christ)] in the hall of the bright chamber of the heart [BREAST > WOMB] of the maiden famous of understanding.
notes
[All]: The helmingr requires an understanding of the narrative recounted in the gospel of Luke (I.41), in which John the Baptist, still in his mother Elizabeth’s womb, leaps in recognition of the infant Jesus in the womb of his mother Mary, who is visiting Elizabeth. According to Luke I.36, the two women were cousins. Exactly how the poet of Nikdr used this incident as a dæmi in his poem about S. Nicholas is uncertain, but the evidence of the priest Hallur’s later poem (sts 14 and 16 are cited for comparison in SnE 1848-87, II, 210-11 n. 1) suggests that the circumstances surrounding the birth of both saints was the point of comparison. If so, this helmingr must have come not very long after the stanza numbered 1.