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.
[5] drallar eptir ‘trails after’: Dralla is a hap. leg. in poetry and the only occurrence in prose appears to be in the solution to this riddle in the H redaction. Cf. NO: 1 dralla. Kock emends eptir to hinstr ‘hindmost’, to alliterate with hundum ‘dogs’ in l. 4 (NN §2362).