Fjórir hanga, fjórir ganga,
tveir veg vísa, tveir hundum varða,
einn eptir drallar ok jafnan heldr saurugr.
Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Fjórir hanga, fjórir ganga, tveir vísa veg, tveir varða hundum, einn drallar eptir ok jafnan heldr saurugr. Heiðrekr konungr, hyggðu at gátu.
Four hang, four go, two point the way, two ward off dogs, one trails after and [is] always rather dirty. King Heiðrekr, think about the riddle.
[All]: In this stanza ll. 1-3 are fornyrðislag and ll. 4-6 málaháttr. Kock, however, presents the stanza as ljóðaháttr by emending the word order in l. 3 to tveir vísa veg (Skald, NN §3397) and in l. 5 substituting hinstr ‘hindmost’ for eptir (cf. NN §2362).