Exeter Riddle 19
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Mon 24 Feb 2014Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 19
We have a slight complication this week, folks: RUNES! Runes are great, but they can be a bit of a technological nightmare, so bear with me. If you can’t see the runes in the Old English riddle below, scroll down to the bottom of this post where you'll find a screenshot. Not ideal, I know, but this way everyone should get to revel in the glory of runes. Aaaaaaaaand, go!
Ic on siþe seah . ᛋ ᚱ ᚩ
ᚻ . hygewloncne, heafodbeortne,
swiftne ofer sælwong swiþe þrægan.
Hæfde him on hrycge hildeþryþe
5 . ᚾ ᚩ ᛗ . nægledne rad
. ᚪ ᚷ ᛖ ᚹ. Widlast ferede
rynestrong on rade rofne . ᚳ ᚩ
ᚠᚩ ᚪ ᚻ . For wæs þy beorhtre,
swylcra siþfæt. Saga hwæt ic hatte.
I saw on a journey a mind-proud,
bright-headed S R O H,
the swift one running quickly over the prosperous plain.
It had on its back a battle-power,
5 the N O M rode the nailed one
A G E W. The far-stretching track conveyed,
strong in movement on the road, a valiant C O
F O A H. The journey was all the brighter,
the expedition of such ones. Say what I am called.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 105r 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), pages 189-90.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 17: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 78.
Screen shot for the runes:
Tags:
anglo saxon
exeter book
riddles
old english
solutions
riddle 19
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