Gestumbl Heiðr 7^VIII (Heiðr 54)

Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 54 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 7)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 416.

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Before propounding this riddle Gestumblindi says (Heiðr 1924, 62): ek em nú ok nálega þrotinn at gátum, en frekr er hverr til fjǫrsins ‘I am now nearly out of riddles, but everyone is greedy for life’, referring to his agreement with Heiðrekr that he must propound a riddle the king cannot solve in order to save his life.

Heiðrekr’s response is (Heiðr 1924, 63): hrafn byggir jafnan á hám fjǫllum, en dǫgg fellr jafnan í djúpa dali, fiskr lifir andalauss, en þjótandi fors þegir aldri ‘the raven always lives on high mountains, and dew always falls in the deep dales, the fish lives without breath, and the rushing waterfall is never silent’. The combination dǫgg and dalr appears to be a commonplace; cf. Vsp 19/5-6; Vafþr 14/6. — Lines 1-4 are in the form greppaminni ‘poets’ reminder’, which uses a question-and-answer format. Cf. RvHbreiðm Hl 45/1-4^III, SnSt Ht 40^III. In these other examples, the first four half-lines consist of questions, and the second four of answers. These lines correspond structurally to ljóðaháttr half-lines. Heiðrekr’s rhythmical prose response shows signs that it may once have been in verse (Heiðr 1960, 80 n. 2), or that it was composed later by someone without full knowledge of the rules of metrical composition (Gade pers. comm.). On greppaminni see Vésteinn Ólason (1969).