Exeter Riddle 58
VICTORIASYMONS
Date: Thu 12 Jan 2017Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 58
Ic wat anfete ellen dreogan
wiht on wonge. Wide ne fereð,
ne fela rideð, ne fleogan mæg
þurh scirne dæg, ne hie scip fereð,
5 naca nægledbord; nyt bið hwæþre
hyre mondryhtne monegum tidum.
Hafað hefigne steort, heafod lytel,
tungan lange, toð nænigne,
isernes dæl; eorðgræf pæþeð.
10 Wætan ne swelgeþ ne wiht iteþ,
foþres ne gitsað, fereð oft swa þeah
lagoflod on lyfte; life ne gielpeð,
hlafordes gifum, hyreð swa þeana
þeodne sinum. Þry sind in naman
15 ryhte runstafas, þara is Rad foran.
I know a one-footed thing, working with strength,
a creature on the plain. It does not travel far,
nor rides much, nor can it fly
through the bright day, no ship ferries it,
5 no nail-planked boat; it is however a benefit
to its master at many times.
It has a heavy tail, a little head,
a long tongue, not any teeth,
a share of iron; it treads an earth-hole.
10 It swallows no water nor eats a thing,
nor desires food, often however it ferries
a flood into the air; it boasts not of life
of a lord’s gifts, nonetheless it obeys
its own ruler. In its name are three
15 right rune-letters, with ‘rad’ at the front.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 114v 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 209.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 56: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 101-2.
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