Hverjar eru þær brúðir, er ganga í brimskerjum,
ok eiga eptir firði för?
Harðan beð hafa þær inar hvítföldnu,
ok leika í logni fátt.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Hverjar eru þær brúðir, er ganga í brimskerjum, ok eiga för eptir firði? Þær hafa harðan beð, inar hvítföldnu, ok leika fátt í logni. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Who are those brides, who walk in surf-skerries, and have a journey along the fjord? They have a hard bed, the white-hooded ones, and play little in the calm. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.
[2] í brimskerjum: ‘i brim skerum’ 2845, brimserkjum í 281ˣ, brimserkjum í corrected from ‘brinserkjum i’ in another hand 597bˣ, ‘j brinserkjum’ R715ˣ
[2] brimskerjum ‘surf-skerries’: A hap. leg. Cf. Snæbj Lv 1/4, 2III, where the waves are referred to as níu brúðir skerja ‘nine brides of the skerries’. Ms. 281ˣ’s reading, brimserkjum ‘surf-shirts’ is a possible but less satisfactory variant. The reading of R715ˣ (though its prose refers to sker (Heiðr 1924, 136)) and the original reading of 597bˣ (prior to correction) is brinserkjum ‘mail-shirts’, otherwise unattested in Old Norse but cf. e.g. brynstakkr ‘mail-jacket’. This does not make satisfactory sense in the context. On these variants see Burrows (2013, 208-9).