Gamlkan Jóndr 4VII/1 — lát ‘let’
Hǫrðu lát mik hverju firðan,
hreinlífr faðir dróttar, meini,
— síðan mætti ór of eyðask
andar sôr — þvís ljónum grandar.
Flotna, vildak frá þér aldri,
ferðgeymandi, skiliðr verða;
uggr es mér, hvárt þá mák þiggja
þessa gipt, es heimar skiptask.
Hreinlífr faðir dróttar, lát mik firðan hverju hǫrðu meini, þvís grandar ljónum; mætti ór sôr andar síðan of eyðask. Flotna ferðgeymandi, vildak aldri verða skiliðr frá þér; uggr es mér, hvárt þá mák þiggja þessa gipt, es heimar skiptask.
Pure-living Father of the host [= God], let me be removed from every hard evil which injures men; may our wounds of the soul [SINS] then be wiped out. Guardian of the troop of mariners [MANKIND > = God], I would wish never to be parted from you; I am anxious whether I shall be able to receive this grace at the time when worlds are exchanged.
notes
[1-2, 4] lát mik firðan hverju meini þvís ljónum granda ‘let me be removed from every hard evil which injures men’: In constructions introduced by the verb lata ‘let’ and containing passive forms the inf. of the modal verb (vera) is often omitted (cf. LP, 362), as it is here: lát mik [vera] firðan ... This construction can be translated more liberally as: ‘let me be cleansed of every harm ... which injures men’. However such verbs as firra ‘to remove’ are often construed with the dat. of ‘what is removed’ and with the acc. of the person, ‘from whom’ something is removed (cf. LP: firra); the passive construction lát mik [vera] firðan hverju meini thus corresponds to an active construction firra mik meini ‘to remove me from harm’, i.e. ‘to remove harm from me’. Since the st. is a plea for the preservation from the effects of sin (cf. the fear expressed in 4/5-8 that the speaker will be separated from God at death) and since the intercalary cl. síðan mætti ór of eydask / andar sár ‘may {our wounds of the soul} [SINS] then be wiped out’ [3-4] is an explicit wish to be cleansed of sin, it appears plausible that lát mik firðan meini should be translated ‘let every harm (= sin) be removed from me’.