Skirnir rode into Jotunheim to Gymir's house. There were fierce dogs bound before the gate of the
fence which was around Gerth's hall. He rode to where a herdsman sat on a hill, and said:
11. "Tell me, herdsman, | sitting on the hill,
And watching all the ways,
How may I win | a word with the maid
Past the hounds of Gymir here?"
The herdsman spake:
12. "Art thou doomed to die | or already dead,
Thou horseman that ridest hither?
Barred from speech | shalt thou ever be
With Gymir's daughter good."
Skirnir spake:
13. "Boldness is better | than plaints can be
For him whose feet must fare;
To a destined day has mine age been doomed,
And my life's span thereto laid."
Gerth spake:
14. "What noise is that which now so loud
I hear within our house?
The ground shakes, and the home of Gymir
Around me trembles too."
The Serving-Maid spake:
15. "One stands without who has leapt from his steed,
And lets his horse loose to graze;"
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
[12. Line 2 is in neither manuscript, and no gap is indicated. I have followed Grundtvig's conjectural emendation.
13. This stanza is almost exactly like many in the first part of the Hovamol, and may well have been
a separate proverb. After this stanza the scene shifts to the interior of the house.
15. No gap indicated in either manuscript. Bugge and Niedner have attempted emendations, while Hildebrand suggests that
the last two lines of stanza 14 are spurious, 14, 12, and 15 thus forming a single stanza, which seems doubtful.]
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Skírnir reið í Jötunheima til Gymisgarða. Þar váru hundar ólmir ok bundnir fyrir skíðgarðs hliði, þess er um sal Gerðar var.
Hann reið at þar, er féhirðir sat á haugi, og kvaddi hann:
11. "Segðu þat, hirðir, er þú á haugi sitr
ok varðar alla vega:
Hvé ek at andspilli komumk ins unga mans
fyr greyjum Gymis?"
Hirðir kvað:
12. "Hvárt ertu feigr, eða ertu framgenginn?
-- -- --
Andspillis vanr þú skalt æ vera
góðrar meyjar Gymis."
Skírnir kvað:
13. "Kostir ro betri heldr en at klökkva sé,
hveim er fúss er fara;
einu dægri mér var aldr of skapaðr
of allt líf of lagit."
Gerðr kvað:
14. "Hvat er þat hlym hlymja, er ek heyri nú til
ossum rönnum í?
Jörð bifask, en allir fyrir
skjalfa garðar Gymis."
Ambátt kvað:
15. "Maðr er hér úti, stiginn af mars baki,
jó lætr til jarðar taka."
-- -- --
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