Gestumbl Heiðr 28VIII (Heiðr 75)/1 — Nær ‘nearly’
Nær var forðum nösgás vaxin,
barngjörn, sú er bar bútimbr saman.
Hlífðu henni hálms bitskálmir;
þó lá drykkjar drynhraun yfir.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Nösgás var forðum nær vaxin, barngjörn, sú er bar saman bútimbr. Bitskálmir hálms hlífðu henni; þó lá drynhraun drykkjar yfir. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Long ago, a nostrils-goose [DUCK] was nearly grown, child-eager, who brought house-timber together. Biting-swords of straw [OX TEETH] protected her; yet the bellowing lava-field of drink [OX SKULL] lay over. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.
readings
[1] Nær: so R715ˣ, mjök all others
notes
[1] nær ‘nearly’: Ms. R715ˣ’s reading is preferred here for alliteration. Some younger mss and early eds give nóg ‘enough’ (see Edd. Min., 116 n. 27.1). Skj B emends to næsta and translates fuldt ‘fully’. Kock (Skald) emends to nýt ‘newly’ on (dubious) palaeographical grounds, suggesting that the four minims of his proposed original nut could have been transformed to míoc via míc (NN §2360). Edd. Min. suggests that the problem could be with forðum rather than the first word, but does not offer a convincing alternative.