Gestumbl Heiðr 25^VIII (Heiðr 72)

Fara ek sá         foldar moldbúa;
        á sat nár á nái;
blindr reið blindum         brimleiðar til;
        jór var andar vanr.
Heiðrekr konungr,         hyggðu at gátu.

Ek sá moldbúa foldar fara; á sat nár á nái; blindr reið blindum til {brimleiðar}; jór var vanr andar. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.

I saw a soil-dweller <snake> of the earth travelling; a corpse sat on a corpse; a blind thing rode on a blind thing to {the surf-way} [SEA]; the steed was lacking in breath. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.

Mss: 2845(71v), 281ˣ(100r), 597bˣ(50v), R715ˣ(29r) (ll. 1-6) (Heiðr); A(8r), W(110) (TGT, ll. 1-3)

Readings: [1] ek sá: so 597bˣ, A, W, ‘ek søg’ 2845, sá ek 281ˣ, er ek sá R715ˣ    [2] ‑búa: ‘‑kűa’ 281ˣ    [3] sat nár: so A, sat naðr 2845, 281ˣ, W, sat maðr 597bˣ, ‘satnadar’ R715ˣ;    nái: ná 281ˣ, 597bˣ, A, W, nú R715ˣ    [4] reið: at R715ˣ    [5] brim‑: brim‑ corrected from brun‑ in the margin in another hand 597bˣ, ‘Bun‑’ with bein‑ written above in another hand R715ˣ;    ‑leiðar: reiðar all;    til: ‘ofda’ with góð hestr written above in another hand R715ˣ    [6] jór: so all others, þá jór 2845;    var: er 281ˣ, 597bˣ;    vanr: vani 281ˣ, 597bˣ, vani apparently corrected from ‘var̄’ in another hand R715ˣ    [7-8] abbrev. as ‘h k’ 2845, abbrev. as ‘heid: k^r’ 281ˣ, abbrev. as ‘h K:’ 597bˣ

Editions: Skj AII, 223, Skj BII, 242, Skald II, 125; Heiðr 1672, 150, FSN 1, 472, Heiðr 1873, 253, 337, Heiðr 1924, 66, 74, 137, FSGJ 2, 42, Heiðr 1960, 37 (Heiðr), TGT 1884, 31, 232, TGT 1927, 180, TGT 1998, 232 (TGT); Edd. Min. 115-16.

Context: In the H redaction, before propounding this riddle, Gestumblindi says, in response to Heiðrekr’s comment after the previous riddle (see Heiðr 72, Note to [All]) (Heiðr 1924, 73): tregr em ek þess, en þó væntir mik, at þar komi nú skjótt ‘I am reluctant for that [i.e. submitting to the judgement of the counsellors], but yet I expect that it will now come quickly’. In TGT, ll. 1-3 illustrate the figure of enigma, defined (TGT 1884, 114): Enigma ær myrkt sen vm leynda liking | lvtanna, sem her ‘Enigma is obscure sense on account of the hidden likeness of things, as here’. Following quotation of the riddle we are told (ibid.): þæskonar figvrv kǫllvm ver gátv, ok ær hon iafnan sett í skalldskap ‘this kind of figure we call gáta [‘riddle’], and it is always rendered in poetry’.

Notes: [All]: Heiðrekr’s response is (Heiðr 1960, 37): þar fanntu hest dauðan á ísjaka ok orm dauðan á hestinum, ok rak þat allt saman eptir ánni ‘there you found a dead horse on an ice-floe and a dead snake on the horse, and all together that drifted along the river’ (the ms. reads ǫrn ‘eagle’ for orm ‘snake’, but this is clearly an error). The H redaction reaches the same solution in more words, but both appear to overinterpret the riddle: the jór ‘steed’ is the ice-floe, the means of conveyance for the moldbúi foldar ‘soil-dweller of the earth’, rather than a literal dead horse, and so ‘a dead serpent on an ice-floe’ solves the riddle by itself (Heiðr 1873, 358 n.). The U redaction offers (Heiðr 1924, 137): þar fanstu stein; hann mun hafa leigid i isiaka; steirn er molldbui; þetta muntu hafa rekid [emended to sied reka in Heiðr 1672, 150] allt samann a vatni; þar voru badir blindir og daudir ‘There you found a stone; it must have lain on an ice-floe; a stone is a soil-dweller; this you must have driven [‘seen driven’ with Verelius’ emendation] all together on the water; there were both the blind and the dead’. Though disappointingly mundane compared to the other redactions, this alternative admittedly addresses the description provided in the riddle. — [1] ek sá ‘I saw’: See Note to Heiðr 48/1-2 above. — [2] moldbúa foldar ‘a soil-dweller <snake> of the earth’: Moldbúi ‘soil-dweller’ is also found in Harð 8/3^V, where it refers to a revenant inhabiting a mound, but cf. heiðbúi ‘heath-dweller’ and steinbúi ‘soil-dweller’ as snake-heiti in Þul Orma 3/4, 5^III. Foldar ‘of the earth’ seems somewhat redundant in meaning. The phrase is kenning-like in structure but cannot be fitted into any known kenning pattern. The referent is taken as a stone rather than a snake in the U redaction: see Note to [All] above. — [3]: All mss have two instances of á ‘on’ in this line; the first is likely pleonastic. No other eds have emended or commented on the problem. — [3] nár ‘a corpse’: The reading of the TGT ms. A is clearly superior and preferred by most eds, the other mss’ naðr ‘snake’ is probably influenced by the solution, but retained in FSGJ. — [5] brimleiðar ‘the surf-way [SEA]’: All mss read ‑reiðar ‘chariot’; this cpd, a ship-kenning, is found in Sturl Hrafn 3/6^II (and see Note), but makes no sense in the present context. Skj B and Skald also emend to ‑leiðar ‘way’, which cpd is found, with tmesis, in Sigv Knútdr 8/7, 8^I. Edd. Min., FSGJ, Heiðr 1873 (253 and 358 n.) and Heiðr 1960 (37 and n. 3) retain ‑reiðar, the latter two citing the Old English poetic word brimrād ‘sea-road’ as a possible influence for the sense ‘sea’, which has to be what is meant. OE brimrād is only found in two instances in Andreas (ll. 1259 and 1585) (DOE), though there are other compounds in ‑rād with similar meaning, e.g. hranrād ‘whale-road, i.e. sea’, swanrād ‘swan-road, i.e. sea’ (DOE Corpus). The word reið ‘rode’ in l. 4 and the horse-imagery may have influenced the copying here.

References

1. Bibliography
2. TGT 1884 = Björn Magnússon Ólsen, ed. 1884. Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling i Snorres Edda tilligemed de grammatiske afhandlingers prolog og to andre tillæg. SUGNL 12. Copenhagen: Knudtzon.
3. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
4. FSN = Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1829-30. Fornaldar sögur nordrlanda. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
5. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Heiðr 1672 = Verelius, Olaus, ed. 1672. Hervarar Saga på Gammel Gotska. Uppsala: Curio.
7. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
8. TGT 1927 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1927b. Óláfr Þórðarson: Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit. Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling. Det kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 13, 2. Copenhagen: Høst.
9. TGT 1998 = Krömmelbein, Thomas, ed. and trans. 1998. Dritte grammatische Abhandlung. Studia nordica 3. Oslo: Novus.
10. Edd. Min. = Heusler, Andreas and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds. 1903. Eddica Minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken. Dortmund: Ruhfus. Rpt. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
11. Heiðr 1924 = Jón Helgason, ed. 1924. Heiðreks saga. Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs. SUGNL 48. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
12. Heiðr 1960 = Tolkien, Christopher, ed. and trans. 1960. Saga Heiðreks konungs ins vitra / The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. Nelson Icelandic Texts. London etc.: Nelson.
13. Heiðr 1873 = Bugge, Sophus, ed. 1873. Hervarar saga ok Heidreks. Det Norske oldskriftselskabs samlinger 17. Christiania (Oslo): Brøgger.
14. DOE = Cameron, Angus, Ashley Crandell Amos and Antonette diPaolo Healey, eds. 2007-. Dictionary of Old English. Toronto: University of Toronto. <http://www.doe.utoronto.ca/>
15. Internal references
16. 2017, ‘ Anonymous, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 367. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=23> (accessed 19 April 2024)
17. (forthcoming), ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, The Third Grammatical Treatise’ in Tarrin Wills (ed.), The Third Grammatical Treatise. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=32> (accessed 19 April 2024)
18. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar in sérstaka’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=42> (accessed 19 April 2024)
19. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 48 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 410.
20. Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 72 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 25)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 438.
21. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Orma heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 931.
22. Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Knútsdrápa 8’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 659.
23. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2022, ‘Harðar saga 8 (Sóti, Lausavísur 1)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross, Kari Ellen Gade and Tarrin Wills (eds), Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 5. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 930.