Anon Líkn 33VII/3 — ítrum ‘a glorious’
Skeið ert fróns und fríðum
farsæl konungs þrælum
fljót ok farmi ítrum
fóstrlands á vit strandar.
Þú snýr böls hjá bárum
— boðar kasta þér lasta —
lýðs und líknar auði
lífs hafnar til stafni.
Ert farsæl, fljót skeið und fríðum þrælum konungs fróns ok ítrum farmi á vit strandar fóstrlands. Þú snýr stafni hjá bárum böls til lífs hafnar und auði líknar lýðs; boðar lasta kasta þér.
You are a voyage-prosperous, swift warship bearing [lit. under] beloved servants of the king of earth [RULER = Christ] and a glorious cargo towards the shore of our native land. You turn your prow past the waves of evil to life’s haven bearing the wealth of grace for mankind; billows of vices toss you.
notes
[3] ítrum farmi (dat. sg.) ‘glorious cargo’: 399a-bˣ, expanding the abbreviation differently, reads frami ‘forward, in front’; so also Sveinbjörn Egilsson. The cargo is either the crucified Christ or the salvation (cf. auðr líknar ‘wealth of grace’, l. 7) won by his suffering. The Cross is often called ‘salvation-bearing’ (crux salutifera), in liturgy (Manz 1941, 132, no. 213), poetry (Bonaventure 1882-1902, VIII, 667, st. 7), and elsewhere: e.g. Dungal (Dungalus Reclusus C9th), who, in defending the veneration of images, writes how hopeless it is for mankind to try to navigate the stormy sea of this world sine nave salutiferae crucis ‘without the ship of the salvation-bearing Cross’ (Dungalus Reclusus, col. 489).