Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Gátur 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 632.
Ek sá fljúga fugla marga:
aldrtjón Ellu, eggdauða menn,
ben bíldskorna, buðlung Dana,
þjónustumey, þunga báru.
Ek sá marga fugla fljúga: aldrtjón Ellu, eggdauða menn, bíldskorna ben, buðlung Dana, þjónustumey, þunga báru.
‘I saw many birds fly: life-loss of Ælla <Northumbrian king>, men killed by the sword, lancet-scored wound, king of Danes, serving-girl, heavy wave. ’
In all mss used here, the riddles are prefaced with an introductory statement (SnE 1848, 238-9): Bóndi nokkurr sendi húskarl sinn morgun einn at hugleiða um tún. En er hann kom aptr, spurði bóndi, hví hann hefði svo lengi á burtu verit. Húskarl sagði: ek hefir horft á þat, sem ek hefi sèt. Bóndi spyr: hvat sáttu? ‘A certain farmer sent his servant one morning to contemplate [things] around the farmstead. And when he came back, the farmer asked why he had been away so long. The servant said, ‘I have been thinking about that which I have seen’. The farmer asks: ‘what did you see?’.
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.
Ek saa fliuga fugla marga alldr tíon ellu | eggdauda menn ben billdsko᷎rna budlung dana þionostu | mey þunga baaru
(LG)
Eg sä fliuga fugla marga | alldurtiön Ellu Eggdauda menn | ben billdskorna budlung dana | þionustu meÿ | þunga bäru
(LG)
Ek sá fljúga
fugla marga:
aldrtjón ella,
eggdauða menn,
ben bíldskorna,
ok buðlung Dana,
þjónustumey,
þunga báru.
Eg sa fliuga fugla marga alldurtiön ella egg dau | da menn, Ben byld skorna og budlung Dana þio | nustu mey þunga bäru
(LG)
Skj: Anonyme digte og vers [XIII], D. 5. [b]. Andre gåder 1: AII, 228, BII, 247-8, Skald II, 128-9; SnE 1848, 239, LaufE 1979, 406.
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