Exeter Riddle 11
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Mon 12 Aug 2013Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 11
Hrægl is min hasofag, hyrste beorhte,
reade ond scire on reafe minum.
Ic dysge dwelle ond dole hwette
unrædsiþas, oþrum styre
5 nyttre fore. Ic þæs nowiht wat
þæt heo swa gemædde, mode bestolene,
dæde gedwolene, deoraþ mine
won wisan gehwam. Wa him þæs þeawes,
siþþan heah bringað horda deorast,
10 gif hi unrædes ær ne geswicaþ.
My garment is stained dark, my ornaments bright,
red and shining on my robe.
I delude the fool and urge the idiot
on reckless tracks; others I steer
5 from suitable ones. I do not know why
they, thus mad, robbed of reason,
deluded in deed, praise my
shadowy way to everyone. Woe to them for that habit,
when they bring the most beloved of hoards on high,
10 if they do not first retreat from recklessness.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 103v 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 186.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 9: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 73-4.
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