Gestumbl Heiðr 33VIII (Heiðr 80)/4 — vilgi ‘not at all’
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.
readings
notes
[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.