Exeter Riddle 28
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Tue 09 Sep 2014Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 28
Biþ foldan dæl fægre gegierwed
mid þy heardestan ond mid þy scearpestan
ond mid þy grymmestan gumena gestreona,
corfen, sworfen, cyrred, þyrred,
5 bunden, wunden, blæced, wæced,
frætwed, geatwed, feorran læded
to durum dryhta. Dream bið in innan
cwicra wihta, clengeð, lengeð,
þara þe ær lifgende longe hwile
10 wilna bruceð ond no wið spriceð,
ond þonne æfter deaþe deman onginneð,
meldan mislice. Micel is to hycganne
wisfæstum menn, hwæt seo wiht sy.
A portion of the earth is garnished beautifully
with the hardest and sharpest
and fiercest of treasures of men,
cut, filed, turned, dried,
5 bound, wound, bleached, weakened,
adorned, equipped, led far
to the doors of men. The joy of living beings
is within it, it remains, it lasts,
that which, while alive, enjoys itself
10 for a long time and does not speak against their wishes,
and then, after death, it begins to praise,
to declare in various ways. Great is it to think,
for wisdom-fast men, [to say] what the creature is.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 107v 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 194-5.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 26: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 84.
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