he has left us only a Danish translation of what he found. In his
travels on the Faroes in 1847-1848 Hammershaimb made strenuous efforts
to get the entire version, but curiously enough only succeeded
in getting a version (of course in the original Faroese) which
corresponds closely in length and content with Schroeter's. He
published this version first in the _Antiquarisk Tidsskrift_,
1849-1851, and later _Faeroeiske Kvaeether_, vol. II. (Copenhagen, 1855).
The translation given below is taken from the ballad as printed in
_Faeroeiske Kvaeether_.

That a longer version of this ballad once existed is proved by the
fact that verse 8 of both Schroeter's and Hammershaimb's versions
states that Guest the Blind[1] propounds thirty riddles to King
Heithrek--about the same number as are to be found in the Saga, though
only some six riddles and the answers to four others have come down
to us. Hammershaimb attributed the loss of the others to the fact
that the ballad is no longer one of those used in the dance. He was of
opinion that the riddles propounded in the _Rima_ are not the same as
those found in the Saga; but it is to be noticed that the subjects
of the riddles are in four cases the same, and in the other cases the
subjects have the same characteristics, though the riddles themselves
are not identical. It would therefore seem on the whole that the
subjects of the _Gatu Rima_ were originally identical with those of
the Saga, but that they have become corrupted and possibly confused in
the popular mind.

[Footnote 1: Presumably a corruption of _Gestumblindi_.]

GATU RIMA.

1. Guest goes wandering from the hall,
Silent and blind is he;
Meets he with an eldern man
All with hair so grey.

2. Meets he with an eldern man,
All with hair so grey;
"Why art thou so silent, Guest the Blind,
And wherefore dost thou stray?"

3. "It is not so wonderful
Though I of speech am slow;
For riddles have brought me to an evil pass,
And I lose my head tomorrow.

4. "It is not so wonderful
Though mournful am I and slow;
For riddles have brought me to an evil pass,
And I lose my life tomorrow."

5. "How much of the red, red gold
Wilt thou give to me,
If I go in before King Heithrek
And ask thy riddles for thee?"

6. "Twelve marks of the red, red gold
Will I give to thee,
If thou wi