Gestumbl Heiðr 25VIII (Heiðr 72)/5 — brim ‘the surf’
Fara ek sá foldar moldbúa;
á sat nár á nái;
blindr reið blindum brimleiðar til;
jór var andar vanr.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Ek sá moldbúa foldar fara; á sat nár á nái; blindr reið blindum til brimleiðar; jór var vanr andar. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
I saw a soil-dweller <snake> of the earth travelling; a corpse sat on a corpse; a blind thing rode on a blind thing to the surf-way [SEA]; the steed was lacking in breath. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.
readings
[5] brim‑: brim‑ corrected from brun‑ in the margin in another hand 597bˣ, ‘Bun‑’ with bein‑ written above in another hand R715ˣ
notes
[5] brimleiðar ‘the surf-way [SEA]’: All mss read ‑reiðar ‘chariot’; this cpd, a ship-kenning, is found in Sturl Hrafn 3/6II (and see Note), but makes no sense in the present context. Skj B and Skald also emend to ‑leiðar ‘way’, which cpd is found, with tmesis, in Sigv Knútdr 8/7, 8I. Edd. Min., FSGJ, Heiðr 1873 (253 and 358 n.) and Heiðr 1960 (37 and n. 3) retain ‑reiðar, the latter two citing the Old English poetic word brimrād ‘sea-road’ as a possible influence for the sense ‘sea’, which has to be what is meant. OE brimrād is only found in two instances in Andreas (ll. 1259 and 1585) (DOE), though there are other compounds in ‑rād with similar meaning, e.g. hranrād ‘whale-road, i.e. sea’, swanrād ‘swan-road, i.e. sea’ (DOE Corpus). The word reið ‘rode’ in l. 4 and the horse-imagery may have influenced the copying here.
kennings
- brimleiðar; — the surf-way; [SEA]