Anon Líkn 16VII/1 — frosti ‘the frost’
Nisti ferð í frosti
fárlunduð við tré sáran
— vasa hann verðugr písla —
várn græðara járnum.
Glymr varð hár af hömrum
heyrðr, þá er nagla keyrðu
hjálms gnýviðir hilmi
hófs í ristr ok lófa.
Fárlunduð ferð nisti várn sáran græðara járnum við tré í frosti; hann vasa verðugr písla. Hár glymr varð heyrðr af hömrum, þá er hjálms gnýviðir keyrðu nagla í ristr ok lófa hilmi hófs.
A harm-minded host nailed our wounded Saviour with irons to the tree in the frost; he was not deserving of torment. High clanging was heard from hammers, when the trees of the din of the helmet [(lit. ‘din-trees of the helmet’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] drove nails into the insteps and palms of the prince of moderation [VIRTUOUS RULER = Christ].
notes
[1] í frosti ‘in the frost’: LP translates as ved vintertid ‘in winter-time’, but winter does not square well with the season of Holy Week. Coldness is often glossed in a moral sense as infidelity or as malice or absence of charity (see Hill 1968, 522-32); cf. the prayer in the OIcel. ember-days homily that God might drive grimléics frost ‘the frost of cruelty’ from our hearts (HómÍsl 1993, 17r; HómÍsl 1872, 36). Later poetry extends the moral sense, e.g. frost glæpa ‘frost of sins’ Lil 81/8; related is C15th jockul synda ‘glacier of sins’ Máríublóm 3/8 (ÍM I.2, 173). Closest to Líkn, in the context of Passion narrative, is the late medieval Niðrstv 19/5, which refers to Christ’s being beaten bædi j grimd ok frosti ‘both in fierceness and frost’ (ibid. 228).