Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 84 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 37)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 451.
Hvat mælti Óðinn í eyra Baldri,
áðr hann væri á bál hafðr?
Hvat mælti Óðinn í eyra Baldri, áðr hann væri á bál hafðr?
‘What did Óðinn say into the ear of Baldr, before he was brought to the pyre? ’
Before reciting the riddle, Gestumblindi says: segðu þat þá fyrst, ef þú ert hverjum konungi vitrari ‘say first then, if you are wiser than every king’.
Cf. Vafþr 54/4-6, in which Óðinn asks the same question (differently worded, though the present l. 3 and Vafþr 54/4 are identical) to win a wisdom contest with the giant Vafþrúðnir (NK 55): hvat mælti Óðinn | áðr á bál stigi | siálfr í eyra syni? ‘what did Óðinn himself say into the ear of his son before he ascended the pyre?’. — This question bears all the hallmarks of a ‘neck riddle’, according to Taylor’s definition (1951, 1): an ‘insoluble puzzle’ whose answer is known only to the questioner and with which the protagonist hopes to ‘save his neck’. — Skj, Skald and FSGJ, with varying levels of emendation (and conjecture, on Kock’s part), attempt to make Gestumblindi’s words of introduction to this stanza (see Context above) part of the verse, but they are not metrical. Skj B places the whole stanza in square brackets.
Text is based on reconstruction from the base text and variant apparatus and may contain alternative spellings and other normalisations not visible in the manuscript text. Transcriptions may not have been checked and should not be cited.
Segþu þat þa fyrst ef þu ert | huerium konungí uítrari huat mælti oþinn i eyra balldri adr hann væri a bal hafdr
(HB)
Hvat mælti Óðinn
í eyra Baldrs,
áðr hann var á bál hafðr?
hvad mællte odinn i eyra Balldurz adur hann var ba̋l | hafdur
(HB)
Hvat mælti Óðinn
í eyra Baldrs,
áðr hann var á báli hafðr?
hvad mælte | Odenn í eyra Balldurs adur hann var a Ble hafdur
(HB)
Hvat mælti Óðinn
í eyra Baldri,
áðr hann †veri† á bál hafðr?
Seig þu þat þa Heidreckur kongr ef | huorium ert vsari huad mællti odinn | j era balldri adur hann veri a bal ha | fdur
(HB)
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], D. 5. Heiðreks gátur 30: AII, 227, BII, 246, Skald II, 128, NN §3177; Heiðr 1672, 152, FSN 1, 487, Heiðr 1873, 262-3, 344, Heiðr 1924, 81, 140, FSGJ 2, 50, Heiðr 1960, 44; Edd. Min. 120.
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