Báru brúðir bleikhaddaðar,
ambáttir tvær, öl til skemmu.
Vara þat höndum horfit né hamri klappat;
þó var fyrir eyjar útan örðigr, sá er ker gerði.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Bleikhaddaðar brúðir, tvær ambáttir, báru öl til skemmu. Vara þat horfit höndum né klappat hamri; þó var örðigr, sá er ker gerði, fyrir útan eyjar. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Pale-haired brides, two handmaids, bore ale to the storehouse. It was not turned by hand nor struck by hammer; yet outside the islands was that upright one who made the keg. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.
[8] ker: so 281ˣ, 597bˣ, om. 2845, konungr R715ˣ
[8] ker ‘keg’: Not in the main ms. and makes the line hypermetrical, and most eds omit, but the keg is clearly what is being referred to rather than the ale inside. To include it here avoids the need for more drastic emendation (cf. Note to l. 4 öl above), and although R715ˣ’s reading, konungr ‘king’, is clearly nonsensical (and ungrammatical), it at least supports there originally having been a word (perhaps beginning with k) here. Heiðr 1873 (247) retains, though omits the previous sá er ‘that one’, making the line more acceptable metrically.