Exeter Riddle 42
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Thu 30 Jul 2015Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 42
This riddle translation comes to us from Jennifer Neville, Reader in Early Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway University of London. She has published on several of the riddles and is currently working on a book about them. You may remember her from her brilliant translation and commentary of Riddle 9.
Ic seah wyhte wrætlice twa
undearnunga ute plegan
hæmedlaces; hwitloc anfeng
wlanc under wædum, gif þæs weorces speow,
5 fæmne fyllo. Ic on flette mæg
þurh runstafas rincum secgan,
þam þe bec witan, bega ætsomne
naman þara wihta. Þær sceal Nyd wesan
twega oþer ond se torhta æsc
10 an an linan, Acas twegen,
Hægelas swa some. Hwylc þæs hordgates
cægan cræfte þa clamme onleac
þe þa rædellan wið rynemenn
hygefæste heold heortan bewrigene
15 orþoncbendum? Nu is undyrne
werum æt wine hu þa wihte mid us,
heanmode twa, hatne sindon.
I saw two amazing creatures —
they were playing openly outside
in the sport of sex. The woman,
proud and bright-haired, received her fill under her garments,
5 if the work was successful. Through rune-letters
I can say the names of both creatures together
to those men in the hall
who know books. There must be two needs
and the bright ash —
10 one on the line — two oaks
and as many hails. Who can unlock
the bar of the hoard-gate with the power of the key?
The heart of the riddle was hidden
by cunning bonds, proof against the ingenuity
15 of men who know secrets. But now
for men at wine it is obvious how those two
low-minded creatures are named among us.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 112r 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 203-4.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 40: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 95.
This post, specifically the lineation of the translation, was edited for clarity on 30 November 2020.
Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 42 jennifer neville
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