Exeter Riddle 60
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Fri 17 Mar 2017Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 60
Riddle 60’s translation is once again by Brett Roscoe of The King’s University, Alberta. (thanks, Brett!)
Ic wæs be sonde, sæwealle neah,
æt merefaroþe,* minum gewunade
frumstaþole fæst; fea ænig wæs
monna cynnes, þæt minne þær
5 on anæde eard beheolde,
ac mec uhtna gehwam yð sio brune
lagufæðme beleolc. Lyt ic wende
þæt ic ær oþþe sið æfre sceolde
ofer meodubence muðleas sprecan,
10 wordum wrixlan. Þæt is wundres dæl,
on sefan searolic þam þe swylc ne conn,
hu mec seaxes ord ond seo swiþre hond,
eorles ingeþonc on ord somod,
þingum geþydan, þæt ic wiþ þe sceolde
15 for unc anum twam ærendspræce
abeodan bealdlice, swa hit beorna ma
uncre wordcwidas widdor ne mænden.**
I was by the shore, near the sea-cliff,
with the surging of the waves.* I remained
fixed at my first place; there were few
of mankind who there,
5 in that solitude, could see my home,
but each morning the wave in its dark,
watery embrace enclosed me. Little did I know
that ever before or after,
I – mouth-less – across the mead-bench would have to speak,
10 exchange words. It is a kind of wonder
to one who does not know such things,
how, with a clever mind, the point of a knife,
the right hand and the thought of man together in a point,
press me for this purpose: that I with you should,
15 in the presence of us two alone,
boldly declare my message, so that no men
should spread our words more widely.**
Notes:
This riddle appears on folios 122v-123r of The Exeter Book.
The above Old English text is based on this edition: Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp, eds, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), page 225.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 58: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 103.
Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 60 brett roscoe
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