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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Gestumbl Heiðr 28VIII (Heiðr 75)

Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 75 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 28)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 442.

GestumblindiHeiðreks gátur
272829

text and translation

Nær var forðum         nösgás vaxin,
barngjörn, sú er bar         bútimbr saman.
Hlífðu henni         hálms bitskálmir;
þó lá drykkjar         drynhraun yfir.
Heiðrekr konungr,         hyggðu at gátu.

{Nösgás} var forðum nær vaxin, barngjörn, sú er bar saman bútimbr. {Bitskálmir hálms} hlífðu henni; þó lá {drynhraun drykkjar} yfir. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
 
‘Long ago, a nostrils-goose [DUCK] was nearly grown, child-eager, who brought house-timber together. Biting-swords of straw [OX TEETH] protected her; yet the bellowing lava-field of drink [OX SKULL] lay over. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.

notes and context

Heiðrekr’s response is (Heiðr 1960, 41): Þar hafði ǫnd búit hreiðr sitt í milli nautskjálka, ok lá haussinn ofan yfir ‘There a duck had built its nest between the jaw-bones of an ox, and the skull lay over above’. The H redaction gives (Heiðr 1924, 76): Þá lá ǫnd á eggjum millum nautzkjálka, er þú hálmbitz skálmir kallar, en drynhraun hausinn, en bútimbr hreiðrit ‘There a duck lay on eggs between the jaw-bones of an ox, which you call ‘biting-swords of straw’, and the skull ‘bellowing lava-field’, and the nest ‘house-timber’. — The solution is reminiscent of Judges XIV.8-14, where Samson eats from a honeycomb produced by a swarm of bees inside the skull of a lion, and later propounds the riddle de comedente exivit cibus et de forte est egressa dulcedo ‘Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness’. Life-from-death symbolism could be said to be present in this riddle, although there is no overt Christian context.

readings

sources

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.

editions and texts

Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], D. 5. Heiðreks gátur 22: AII, 225, BII, 244, Skald II, 127, NN §2360, 2594; Heiðr 1672, 150, FSN 1, 479-80, Heiðr 1873, 256, 341, Heiðr 1924, 76-7, 138, FSGJ 2, 47, Heiðr 1960, 41; Edd. Min. 116-17.

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