Cookies on our website

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page.

Continue

skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

Menu Search

Gestumbl Heiðr 15VIII (Heiðr 62)

Hannah Burrows (ed.) 2017, ‘Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks 62 (Gestumblindi, Heiðreks gátur 15)’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 425.

GestumblindiHeiðreks gátur
141516

text and translation

Hvat er þat undra,         er ek úti sá
        fyrir Dellings durum?
Lýðum lýsir,         en loga gleypir
        ok keppaz um þat vargar ávalt.
Heiðrekr konungr,         hyggðu at gátu.

Hvat er undra þat, er ek sá úti fyrir durum Dellings? Lýsir lý́ðum, en gleypir loga, ok vargar keppaz ávalt um þat. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
 
‘What is the wonder that I saw outside before Dellingr’s doors? It gives light to men, but swallows flame, and wolves always compete for it. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.

notes and context

Heiðrekr replies (Heiðr 1960, 81): þat er sól; hon lýsir lǫnd ǫll ok skínn yfir alla menn, en Skalli ok Hatti heita vargar ... en annarr þeira ferr fyrir, en annarr eptir sólu ‘that is the sun; she illuminates all lands and shines over all men, and the wolves are called Skalli and Hatti ... and one of them goes before, and the other after the sun’. On these wolves see Note to l. 6. — [1]: See Note to Heiðr 55/1. — [1-3]: The mss are ambiguous as to whether the opening formula is intended here (their readings could be an abbreviation of these lines, as in the previous stanzas), or whether the riddle is simply intended to read Hvat er þat er lýðum lýsir… ‘What is it that gives light to men…’. Considering the heavy use of abbreviation in these lines elsewhere, and the H redaction’s practice of grouping riddles with a similar beginning together, it is assumed here and by other eds that the formula should be understood. See also Note to Heiðr 58/1-3. — [6]: This conceit is found in Grí 39 and Gylf, in both of which the wolves are called Skǫll and Hati rather than Skalli and Hatti as in the prose solution here. Gylf explains that the sun travels fast because she is being chased, specifying (SnE 2005, 14): Hann [i.e Skǫll] hræðisk hon ok hann mun taka hana, en sá heitir Hati Hróðvitnisson er fyrir henni hleypr, ok vill hann taka tunglit, ok svá mun verða ‘She is afraid of him and he will catch her, and that one is called Hati Hróðvitnisson who runs before her, and he wishes to catch the moon, and so it will happen’. In Vafþr 47 it is the mythical wolf Fenrir who will swallow the sun at Ragnarǫk.

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 35: AII, 227-8, BII, 247, Skald II, 128; Heiðr 1873, 246, Heiðr 1924, 68, Heiðr 1960, 81; Edd. Min. 111-12.

Close

Log in

This service is only available to members of the relevant projects, and to purchasers of the skaldic volumes published by Brepols.
This service uses cookies. By logging in you agree to the use of cookies on your browser.

Close

Stanza/chapter/text segment

Use the buttons at the top of the page to navigate between stanzas in a poem.

Information tab

Interactive tab

The text and translation are given here, with buttons to toggle whether the text is shown in the verse order or prose word order. Clicking on indiviudal words gives dictionary links, variant readings, kennings and notes, where relevant.

Full text tab

This is the text of the edition in a similar format to how the edition appears in the printed volumes.

Chapter/text segment

This view is also used for chapters and other text segments. Not all the headings shown are relevant to such sections.