Cite as: Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 64 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 17)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 428.
Báru brúðir bleikhaddaðar, ambáttir tvær, öl til skemmu. Vara þat höndum horfit né hamri klappat; þó var fyrir eyjar útan örðigr, sá er ker gerði. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Báru brúðir bleikhaddaðar, ambáttir tvær, öl til skemmu. Vara þat höndum horfit né hamri klappat; þó var fyrir eyjar útan örðigr, sá er ker gerði. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Bleikhaddaðar brúðir, tvær ambáttir, báru öl til skemmu. Vara þat horfit höndum né klappat hamri; þó var örðigr, sá er ker gerði, fyrir útan eyjar. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
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text
prose order
Pale-haired brides, two handmaids, bore ale to the storehouse. It was not turned by hand nor struck by hammer; yet outside the islands was that upright one who made the keg. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle. |
context: In the H redaction, before Gestumblindi speaks this riddle Heiðrekr challenges him (Heiðr 1924, 69): Eða kantu ekki á annan veg gátur upp at bera en hafa et sama upphaf at, þar sem mér virðiz þú fróðr maðr? ‘Do you not know another way to propound riddles than to have the same beginning, since I think you a wise man?’
notes: Heiðrekr’s response is (Heiðr 1960, 36): þar fara svanbrúðir til hreiðrs síns ok verpa eggjum; skurm á eggi er eigi hǫndum gǫrt né hamri klappat, en svanr er fyrir eyjar útan ǫrðigr, sá er þær gátu eggin við ‘There female swans go to their nest and lay their eggs; the shell of the egg is not made by hands nor struck by hammer, but the swan outside the islands is upright, he with whom they produced the egg’. The H-redaction wording is quite different (and less preferable) (Heiðr 1924, 70): þat eru æðar tvær þær er eggjum verpa; eggin eru eigi gǫr með hamri eða hǫndum, en þjónostumeyjar báru ǫlit í eggskurninni ‘It is two eider-ducks who lay their eggs; the eggs are not made with hammer or hands, but the servant-girls carried the ale in the eggshell’. Female eider-ducks do not have white plumage (cf. bleikhaddaðr ‘pale-headed’ l. 2); moreover, the örðigr ‘upright [one]’ in l. 8 seems appropriate to a swan’s long neck and/or the action of a male swan guarding its territory. — Following
Heiðrekr’s challenge in the H redaction (see Context), there is a move away
from the Hvat er þat undra formula of
the previous nine riddles. This effect is lost in the
other redactions, which do not group all the undra riddles together, nor do they have the prose challenge. In this stanza, ll. 1-4 and 9-10 are fornyrðislag and 5-8 are málaháttr.
texts: ‹Heiðr 64 (49/47)›
editions: Skj Anonyme digte og vers [XIII]: D. 5. Heiðreks gátur 9 (AII, 223; BII, 241-2); Skald II, 125; NN §3283; Heiðr 1672, 148, FSN 1, 470-1, Heiðr 1873, 247-8, 336, Heiðr 1924, 64, 69, 137, FSGJ 2, 41, Heiðr 1960, 36; Edd. Min. 112.
sources
GKS 2845 4° (2845) |
71r, 15 - 71r, 17 |
(Heiðr) |
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AM 281 4°x (281x) |
100r, 4 - 100r, 6 |
(Heiðr) |
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AM 597 b 4°x (597bx) |
50r, 17 - 50r, 19 |
(Heiðr) |
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UppsUB R 715x (R715x) |
29r, 2 - 29r, 5 [1-8] |
(Heiðr) |
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AM 203 folx (203x) |
103r, 23 - 103v, 2 |
(Heiðr) |
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