Hneig, er veitir vægðir
vígrunni, miskunnar
hreina hugðubænum
heyrn þína, guð, mínum;
allr týnumz ek ella,
ítr, sem þú mátt líta,
guð, nema gæzku saðrar
gipt þín of mér skíni.
Guð, er veitir vægðir vígrunni, hneig þína hreina heyrn miskunnar mínum hugðubænum; ella týnumz ek allr, sem þú, ítr guð, mátt líta, nema þín gipt saðrar gæzku skíni of mér.
God, [you] who grant mercies to the battle-bush [WARRIOR], incline your pure ear [lit. hearing] of mercy to my loving prayers; otherwise I am completely lost, as you, glorious God, can see, unless your gift of true grace shine upon me.
[3] hugðubænum ‘loving prayers’: Lit. ‘prayers of love, sincerity’. Skj B (followed by Skald) emends hugðu unnecessarily to hugðum (from adj. hugaðr ‘minded, disposed, righteous’), assuming perhaps a missing nasal stroke. Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1844, 36 and Rydberg 1907, 47 follow B. LP (1860) translates hugðu bænir as preces sincerae ‘sincere prayers’; cf. CVC: hugð, hugða ‘love, interest, affection’; hugðumaðr ‘intimate friend’. Hugða also occurs with a slightly different sense in 41/7.