Exeter Riddle 48
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Tue 08 Dec 2015Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 48
Ic gefrægn for hæleþum hring gyddian, (1)
torhtne butan tungan, tila þeah he hlude
stefne ne cirmde, strongum wordum.
Sinc for secgum swigende cwæð:
5 “Gehæle mec, helpend gæsta.”
Ryne ongietan readan goldes
guman galdorcwide, gleawe beþencan
hyra hælo to gode, swa se hring gecwæð.
I heard a ring sing before men,
bright, without a tongue, rightly with strong words,
although it did not yell in a loud voice.
The treasure, silent before men, spoke:
5 “Heal me, helper of souls.”
May men interpret the mystery of the red gold,
the incantation, may they wisely entrust
their salvation to God, as the ring said.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 113r 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 205-6.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 46: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 97-8.
Textual Note:
(1) I have followed Williamson’s emendation here. The manuscript reads hringende an, which Krapp and Dobbie interpret as hring endean. Williamson makes a good case for more drastically revising this difficult part of the text on pages 288-9.
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