Note Footnote 1: — PART II

That a longer version of this ballad once existed is proved by the fact that verse 8 of both Schröter's and Hammershaimb's versions states that Guest the Blind1 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 Ríma 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 Gátu Ríma were originally identical with those of the Saga, but that they have become corrupted and possibly confused in the popular mind.