Gestumbl Heiðr 33^VIII (Heiðr 80)

Sá ek á sumri         sólbjörgum í
verðung vaka,         vilgi teita.
Drukku jarlar         öl þegjandi,
en æpanda         ölker stóð.
Heiðrekr konungr,         hyggðu at gátu.

Ek sá verðung vaka, vilgi teita, á sumri í sólbjörgum. Jarlar drukku öl þegjandi, en ölker stóð æpanda. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.

I saw a retinue be wakeful, not at all happy, in summer at sunset. The jarls drank ale in silence, but the ale-keg stood squealing. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.

Mss: 2845(72r), 281ˣ(100v), 597bˣ(51r), R715ˣ(29v) (ll. 1-8) (Heiðr)

Readings: [1] Sá ek á: ‘sá ek ur’ corrected from ‘sa̋kur’ in the hand of JR R715ˣ;    sumri: ‘suerr’ R715ˣ    [2] sólbjörgum: so 281ˣ, 597bˣ, sól björg of 2845, ‘selbiorgum’ R715ˣ;    í: so 281ˣ, 597bˣ, á 2845, R715ˣ    [3] verðung: so all others, bað ek vel 2845;    vaka: lífa 2845    [4] vilgi: vígi 281ˣ, 597bˣ;    teita: so 281ˣ, 597bˣ, teiti 2845, ‘slito’ R715ˣ    [7] æpanda: æpandi 281ˣ, 597bˣ, ‘leipanda’ R715ˣ    [8] stóð: stóðu 281ˣ, 597bˣ, R715ˣ    [9-10] abbrev. as ‘h k’ 2845, abbrev. as ‘heidr: k^r’ 281ˣ, abbrev. as ‘h: K:’ 597bˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 226, Skj BII, 245, Skald II, 127; Heiðr 1672, 151, FSN 1, 482, Heiðr 1873, 259-60, 342, Heiðr 1924, 79-80, 138-9, FSGJ 2, 48, Heiðr 1960, 42; Edd. Min. 118-19.

Notes: [All]: Heiðrekr’s response is (Heiðr 1960, 42): Þar drukku grísir gylti, en hon hrein við ‘There piglets drank from a sow, and she squealed at that’. The H redaction has rather more prose (Heiðr 1924, 80): ‘þat er grísasýr; þá er grísir sjúga hana, þá hrínn hón, en þeir þegja; en eigi veit ek, hvat manna þú ert, er þvílíka hluti gerir svá mjúklega af lítlum efnum.’ Ok nú biðr konungr í hljóði at byrgja skuli hallardyrrnar ‘“that is a sow with piglets; when the piglets suck her, then she squeals, but they are silent; but I don’t know what kind of man you are, when you make such things so adroitly from little material.” And now the king orders in secret that the hall-doors should be closed’. — [1] ek sá ‘I saw’: See Note to Heiðr 48/2 above. — [2] sólbjörgum ‘sunset’: Lit. ‘sun-saving’. Hap. leg. — [3] verðung ‘a retinue’: This word is attested only in poetry. — [4] vilgi ‘not at all’: Vilgi can mean, depending on the context, either ‘not at all’ or the opposite, ‘very much’, and was likely chosen for its ambiguity. The former meaning has been chosen for the translation here since, in a nice juxtaposition of opposites and subversion of expectations, the silence of the drinking jarls (cf. Akv 2/1-4) and the squealing of the ‘keg’ imply unhappiness. On the other hand, suckling piglets are likely to be content, and so the word can be reinterpreted once the solution is known. — [8] stóð ‘stood’: This is the reading of 2845, while the other mss have the 3rd pers. pl. pret. indic. stóðu. The subject of the verb, ölker ‘the ale-keg’, being n., could be either sg. or pl. Ms. 2845’s 3rd pers. sg. pret. indic. variant has been preferred here, even though it renders the line hypometrical, while stóðu would make it a metrical fornyrðislag line, like the rest of the stanza. However, a pl. subject and verb here make awkward sense, and go against the understanding of both prose explanations of the riddle’s meaning. Skj B and Skald emend to of stóð to give a metrical line.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
6. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
7. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
8. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
9. Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
10. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
11. Internal references
12. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 48 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 410.
13. Not published: do not cite ()