Hark, Heaven's Maker
HEYR HIMNASMIÐUR

Heyr himnasmiður
hvers skáldið biður.
Komi mjúk til mín
miskunnin þín.
Því heiti' eg á þig,

þú hefur skaptan mig,
ég er þrællinn þinn,
þú ert Drottinn minn.

Guð, heit eg á þig,
að græðir mig.
Minnst mildingur mín,
mest þurfum þín.
Ryð þú röðla gramur,
ríklyndur og framur,
hölds hverri sorg
úr hjarta borg.

Gæt, mildingur mín,
mest þurfum þín,
helst hverja stund
á hölda grund.
Set, meyjar mögur,
málsefni fögur.
Öll er hjálp af þér
í hjarta mér.

Texti: Kolbeinn Tumason

As sung by the Hamrahlid choir, using the arrangement Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson made for a mixed choir.
(Ogg Vorbis format, should be playable with the newest versions of today's audio players. Winamp 2.80 and Sonique 2 alpha work well.)

Hark, Heaven's Maker is one of the most beautiful choral arrangements I've sung - the poem is also an exceptionally beautiful one, what with the repeating of facts - the first part of the later verses are remade versions of the later part of the verse before. What's also very interesting about this poem is that it was written in 1208 by a man named Kolbeinn Tumason. He was a farmer, and of course a viking, but also one of the most renown poets of his era. Icelanders are very proud of the fact that the exact date and year and poet are known for this poem, and it's one of if not the oldest poet in the world where the poet is known.
He wrote this poet the night before his own death. He was killed in a battle at Víðines in september in the year 1208 after a long dispute with a man he once helped to make the bishop of Iceland - Guðmundur Arason. He knew he was not far from death, so he wrote it asking god for peace and worshipping him for his love and mercy - and also wrote about the love of a woman.
I'm think the book Sturlunga has been translated to English, so if you're interested you can read more about this there. It's one of the old Icelandic Sagas, one of the contemporary history records.

Now, going through the poem and it's meaning.

{Heyr, himnasmiður}
"að heyra" is the verb "to hear", here it's in vocative form, begging god to listen
"himnar" is the plural of "himinn", which means "sky" - but while himinn in singular form is used for the sky in it's normal sense, the plural form means the same as "heaven". When someone dies, a Christian would say "hann er farinn til himna". When talking about heaven where that is the subject of the sentence, the word "himnaríki" is used - which could be translated as "kingdom of heaven".
"smiður" is the word "smith". The meaning is still the exact same.
So here the poet uses the word "smith of heaven, builder of heaven, maker of heaven" for god.

{hvers skáldið biður}
"hvers" means what. "Hver" as and adverb means "who" (and as a noun it means hot spring, beware of making that mistake:P) but with the s it can also refer to some thing, object, material or immaterial. The most likely way to run into it in reading Icelandic is probably when someone asks "why?" as that translates to "hvers vegna?" - ("because of what?"). A pretty funny ambiguity issue amongst Icelanders is when someone is stating he's got to leave, or go to a party/for a visit/ or something - and the other person asks "Til hvers?" - it can both mean "What for?" and "Who to?", and the tone is the same in both situations.
"skáldið" is "the poet". "Skáld" is the unaccented from, "a poet". There is a verb directly related, "að skálda", but usually means "to conjure", making up a story or things a bit more on the negative side. Kolbeinn is here referring to himself.
"biður" is the verb "að biðja" - "to beg, to pray, (and sometimes "to ask")" in third person, present form.

{Komi mjúk til mín}
"Komi" is the verb "að koma" - "to come" in a form as one would say "that there might come, would there come".
"mjúk" = "soft", female form. (male: mjúkur, neutral: mjúkt)
til = to
mín = me
"that there come soft times, easiness, forgiveness to me"

{miskunnin þín.}
"miskunn" = "mercy" - "miskunnin" = "the mercy". Accented form.
"þín" = "your" in a certain form.
Like "your mercy"

{Því heiti' eg á þig,}
"Því" = "thus"
"heiti" - "að heita", "to vow"
"eg" = "ég" = "I"
"á" = "on"
"þig" = "you" (descriptive form)
..basically, "thus I vow to you" or might be "thus I address you"

{þú hefur skaptan mig,}
"þú" = "you"
"hefur" - "að hafa", "to have"
"skaptan" - "að skapa", "to create". This is an old form of the past tense, now it would be "skapað".
"mig" = "me"

{ég er þrællinn þinn,}
"er" = "is" - it's the present form of the verb "að vera" = "to be"
"þrællinn" = "the slave". "þræll" = "slave"
"þinn" = "your"

{þú ert Drottinn minn.}
"ert" = "are" - second person present form of "to be"
"Drottinn" = "The Lord"
"minn" = my"
..."You are my lord."

{Guð, heit eg á þig,}
"God, I address you"

{að græðir mig,}
"að græða" = "to heal"
"mig" = "me"

{minnst, mildingur mín,}
"Minnst" I think, here means "remember". This is an 800 year old poem, so some of the words are in forms not used anymore, and I'm doing the translation on my own.
"mildingur" is an old word for "king". Until recently, I thought it meant "girl", and consequentially thought the line was beautiful. I don't know what to thing now, but it still sounds very well:P
"mín" = "mine"

{mest þurfum þín.}
"mest" = "most"
"þurfum" - "að þurfa" = "to need"
"þín" = "you"

{Ryð þú röðla gramur,}
"Ryð" I'm not familiar with the other forms of this old verb, but it means "rule/decide".
Today the word "ryð" as a noun means "rust"
"röðla" - plural form of "röðull" which is a word for the sun. It's related to "rauður"="red".
"gramur" is an old word for "king"

{ríklyndur og framur,}
"ríklyndur": "ríkur"="rich", "-lyndur" is added to a word to describe a personality. "ríklyndur" thus means "rich by heart" or "generous".
"framur" = better than any other

{hölds hverri sorg}
"hölds", form of "að halda" = "to hold, to keep"
"hverri" = "each"
"sorg" = "sorrow"

{úr hjarta borg.}
"úr" = "out of"
"hjarta" = "heart"
"borg" = "city"

{Gæt, mildingur mín,}
"Gæt", form of "að gæta" = "to watch over, to protect, to watch out"

{mest þurfum þín,}
(same sentence as above)

{helst hverja stund}
"helst" = "at best", "rather" ("most often if possible")
"hverja" = "each"
"stund" = "time" (each time)

{á hölda grund.}
"hölda" is the possessive plural present form of "höldar" (still plural, I don't know the singular form, but it could be "höldur") and it means "men".
"grund" = "ground" - exact same word.
..."on men's ground", in the world of men

{Set, meyjar mögur,}
"Set", vocative form of the verb "að setja" = "to set"
"meyjar" = possessive singular form of "mey" = "maiden"
"mögur" = "son" (referring to Jesus Christ?

{málsefni fögur.}
"málsefni" = "subjects" (as in things to talk about)
"fögur" more poetic, sophisticated word than "fallegur", but means beautiful. In a more sophisticated, poetic manner:P. Here it's in plural neutral form, singular male form is "fagur".

{Öll er hjálp af þér}
"Öll" = "all"
"hjálp" = "help"
"af" = "of" here it has the place of "from"
"þér" = "you" in dative form.

{í hjarta mér.}
"í" = "in"

*whew* :)

Well, who wants to write it up in traditional poetic arrangement in English? Doesn't have to be neat, but the more it is, the better;)

Here we have a very interesting web page I found, it has two writings from different time periods of the poem - in the writing rules of those periods. "Heyr, himnasmiður" is at the bottom of the page. As you should see, some letters are skipped (like "framur" is written "framr", but it's probably pronounced in the same way) and also that he used the old latin verb "es, est" which has been replaced with the icelandic version of the verb.

Info on the choral arrangement

Info on the composer, Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson