Higar ið skald tað tók,
Havið tær hoyrt um kongin tann,
Íð skrívaður stendur í bók?
("This poem has come from Iceland, brought hither by a skald. Have you heard of the king about whom this book is written?")
The passages quoted above would seem to point to Rímur rather than Sagas as the sources of the ballads. Or had more than one "Book so broad" come from Iceland? One wonders. Heusler notices[30] the tendency to divide up the longer ballads into sections or Tættir, each whole in itself and yet forming a part of the ballad, and suggests the Icelandic Rímur as the models for this particular form. It is even possible that the word Ríma is used advisedly in the first strophe of Olufu Kvæði, instead of the somewhat commoner Kvæði, with some reminiscence of its origin. One of the Sjurðar Kvæði (Dvörgamoy III) begins:
Eina veit eg rímuna,
Íð inni hevir ligið leingi.
(I know a rhyme (or Ríma?) etc.)
and Rísin í Holmgarð also begins:
Eg veit eina rímuna,