Anon Líkn 41VII/3 — hjálpar ‘salvation’
Engr fær töld með tungu
tákn þín, er nú skína,
hjálpar hneigistólpi
heims alls, of kyn beima.
Æxtr ferr valt til vaxtar
vegr þinn, er berr fegri,
hreinn, en hugðu vinnim,
hverja dýrð, of skýrða.
Hneigistólpi alls heims hjálpar, engr fær töld með tungu tákn þín, er nú skína of kyn beima. Hreinn vegr þinn, er berr hverja dýrð fegri en vinnim of skýrða hugðu, ferr valt æxtr til vaxtar.
Inclining pillar of all the world’s salvation [CROSS], none can enumerate with tongue your signs, which now shine upon the race of men. Your pure honour, which bears every glory fairer than we might express in thought, grows continually greater.
notes
[3] hneigistólpi ... hjálpar ‘inclining pillar ... of salvation [CROSS]’: Stólpi ‘pillar, column’, is used in Veraldar saga to translate the pillar of light that guided the Israelites in Exod. XIII (Jakob Benediktsson 1944, 26 and 83). The Cross as column or pillar is a rare image (cf. sigrstóð ‘victory-post’ 42/2). Rabanus Maurus (C9th) calls the Cross columna et firmamentum veritatis ‘the column and mainstay of truth’ (De laudibus sanctae crucis, col. 169; Perrin 1997, 59). Possibly influenced by Líkn, the image occurs in Mgr 13/2-3 where Mary tells how she watched as Christ bore on his shoulders the hjálpar stólpa til píslar ‘pillar of salvation [CROSS] to the torment’. (Mary herself is called hjálpar stólpi in Mdr 41/5 and Pét 5/7). ‘Inclining’ (hneigi-, from hneigja ‘incline, bow down’, as in 3/1-4 hneig heyrn þína ‘incline your hearing’) may, as LP (1860) and LP propose, suggest the idea of leaning forward as if proffering a gift; cf. the kenning in Kálf Kátr 45/6-7 hneigiþollr öglis túna ‘giving tree of hawk’s home fields [ARM > GENEROUS MAN]’. But here the image is more likely based upon st. 9 of Fortunatus’ Pange lingua, in which the poet tenderly entreats the Cross to bend in order to ease Christ’s suffering: Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera / et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas ‘Bend your branches, noble tree; relax your tense fibres, and let the firmness nature gave you become pliant’ (Bulst 1957, 128).
kennings
- Hneigistólpi alls heims hjálpar, — Inclining pillar of all the world’s salvation, [CROSS]