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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Gestumbl Heiðr 3VIII (Heiðr 50)

Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 50 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 3)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 412.

GestumblindiHeiðreks gátur
234

text and translation

Hvat er þat drykkja,         er ek drakk í gær?
        Var þat ei vín né vatn,
mjǫðr né mungát,         né matar ekki;
        þó gekk ek þorstalauss þaðan.
Heiðrekr konungr,         hyggðu at gátu.

Hvat drykkja er þat, er ek drakk í gær? Þat var ei vín né vatn, mjǫðr né mungát, né ekki matar; þó gekk ek þorstalauss þaðan. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
 
‘What kind of drink is that which I drank yesterday? It was not wine or water, mead or ale, or any kind of food; yet I went thirstless from there. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.

notes and context

Heiðrekr’s response reads (Heiðr 1960, 34): þar lagðisk þú í forsœlu, er dǫgg var fallin á grasi, ok kœldir svá varrir þínar ok stǫðvaðir svá þorsta þinn  ‘There you laid yourself down in the shade, where dew had fallen on the grass, and you thus cooled your lips and so quenched your thirst’. The H redaction adds (Heiðr 1924, 59): En ef þú ert sá Gestumblindi, sem ek ætlaða, þá ertu vitrari en ek hugða, því at ek hefi spurt orð þín óvitrleg, en geraz nú á leið spakleg ‘But if you are that Gestumblindi that I expected, you are wiser than I thought, because I have heard your words [to be] without wit, but they take now a wise course’. Cf. Gestumbl Heiðr 12 (Heiðr 59), whose solution begins with similar wording. — Vsp 45 (NK 53) states that Líf and Lífþrasir, the survivors of Ragnarǫk, will be nourished by morgindǫgg ‘morning dew’. — [2]: Similar to Gestumbl Heiðr 1/2 (Heiðr 48). — [4]: The reading of 281ˣ and 597bˣ is preferred on metrical grounds over that of 2845, né enn heldr mungát ‘nor yet ale either’, in accordance with other eds. 

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 3: AII, 221-2, BII, 240, Skald II, 125; Heiðr 1672, 144, FSN 1, 466, Heiðr 1873, 236-7, 334, Heiðr 1924, 58-9, 131, FSGJ 2, 38-9, Heiðr 1960, 33; Edd. Min. 107.

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