Guðs var mær ok móðir
mána hauðrs við dauða
hýr með hjarta sáru
hildings ok píningar.
Víst bar víf it hæsta
vátar kiðr af gráti,
sonr, þá er sárr af benjum
siðnenninn dó hennar.
Hýr mær ok móðir guðs var með sáru hjarta við dauða ok píningar hildings mána hauðrs. Víst bar it hæsta víf kiðr vátar af gráti, þá er hennar siðnenninn sonr dó, sárr af benjum.
The mild maiden and mother of God [= Mary] was with a sore heart at the death and torments of the king of the moon’s land [SKY/HEAVEN > = God (= Christ)]. Certainly the highest woman bore cheeks wet from weeping when her virtue-striving son died, sore from wounds.
[1] mær ok móðir ‘maiden and mother’: This is the first pairing of these alliterative appellatives in ON poetry. The pair appears in the C14th in Lil 3/1, 34/3 (mey), Anon Pét 6, 3/4, and Anon Mv II 22/1-2, later also in Náð 5/1-2, Máría móðirin skæra 1/1-2, Máríublóm 40/1, etc. (ÍM II, 5; II, 48; I.2. 180).
case: nom.