Gamlkan Has 1VII/3 — upp ‘up’
Hár stillir, lúk heilli
hreggtjalda, mér, aldar,
upp, þús allar skaptir,
óðborgar hlið góðu,
mjúk svát mættik auka
môl gnýlundum stála
miska bót af mætu
mín fulltingi þínu.
Hár stillir hreggtjalda, þús skaptir allar aldar, lúk mér upp hlið óðborgar góðu heilli, svát mættik auka mjúk môl mín, bót miska, stála gnýlundum af mætu fulltingi þínu.
High ruler of the storm-tents [SKY/HEAVEN > = God], you who created all humans, open up for me the gate of the fortress of poetry [BREAST > MOUTH] with good grace, so that I might augment my soft words, the remedy for misdeeds, for trees of the din of swords [(lit. ‘din-trees of swords’) BATTLE > WARRIORS] with your excellent help.
notes
[1-4] lúk mér upp hlið óðborgar ‘open up for me the gate of the fortress of poetry [BREAST > MOUTH]’: Paasche (1914a, 143) suggests that this striking image might be an echo of Col. IV.3 orantes simul et pro nobis ostium sermonis ad loquendum mysterium Christi ‘praying withal for us also, that God may open unto us a door of speech to speak the mystery of Christ’. The resemblance between the texts, however, is somewhat oblique, and Finnur Jónsson’s intimation (LH II, 114) that the phrase is original is doubtless correct.