Exeter Riddle 50
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Fri 19 Feb 2016Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 50
Wiga is on eorþan wundrum acenned
dryhtum to nytte, of dumbum twam
torht atyhted, þone on teon wigeð
feond his feonde. Forstrangne oft
5 wif hine wrið; he him wel hereð,
þeowaþ him geþwære, gif him þegniað
mægeð ond mæcgas mid gemete ryhte,
fedað hine fægre; he him fremum stepeð
life on lissum. Leanað grimme
10 þam þe hine wloncne weorþan læteð.
A warrior is wondrously brought forth on earth
for the profit of people, a bright thing produced
from two speechless ones, which one marshals in anger
foe against his foe. A woman often binds him,
5 the very strong one; he obeys them well,
peaceably serves them, if women and men
minister to him in a fitting manner,
feed him fairly; he furnishes them with benefits,
with the delights of life. Grimly he repays
10 those who let him become proud.
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), page 206.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 48: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 98.
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