Einn, lúk upp, sem ek bæni,
óðrann ok gef sanna
mér, þú er* alls átt ærit,
orðgnótt, himins dróttinn.
Þinn vil ek kross, sem kunnum,
(Kristr styrki mik) dýrka
(örr, sá er ýta firrir
allri nauð ok dauða).
Himins dróttinn, þú er* einn átt ærit alls, lúk upp óðrann, sem ek bæni, ok gef mér sanna orðgnótt. Ek vil dýrka þinn kross, sem kunnum; Kristr styrki mik, örr, sá er firrir ýta allri nauð ok dauða.
Heaven’s Lord [= God], you who alone possess a fullness of all, open up my poetry-house [BREAST], as I pray, and give me true word-abundance. I desire to glorify your Cross as [well as] we [I] can; may Christ strengthen me, the bountiful one, who removes men from all distress and death.
[7] örr sá ‘bountiful that one’: Apo koinou; the ambiguous referent of the adj. and pron. (whether Kristr or kross) may be intentional, evoking the tradition in which the Cross and Christ are so closely identified that the Cross becomes agent rather than merely instrument of salvation (cf. st. 39). Alternatively the final couplet may be subordinate to the interjection: ‘May bountiful Christ, he who removes men from all distress and death, strengthen me’.