Exeter Riddle 63
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Mon 29 May 2017Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 63
FYI, the manuscript is pretty damaged here, so the last few lines are impossible to reconstruct. Try to enjoy nonetheless!
Oft ic secga seledreame sceal
fægre onþeon, þonne ic eom forð boren
glæd mid golde, þær guman drincað.
Hwilum mec on cofan cysseð muþe
5 tillic esne, þær wit tu beoþ,
fæðme on folm[. . . . .]grum þyð,
wyrceð his willa[. . . . . .]ð l[. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .] fulre, þonne ic forð cyme
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
10 Ne mæg ic þy miþan, [. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .]an on leohte
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
swylce eac bið sona
. .]r[.]te getacnad, hwæt me to [. . . .
15 . . . .]leas rinc, þa unc geryde wæs.
Often I must prosper fairly among the hall-joy
of men, when I am carried forth
shining with gold, where men drink.
Sometimes a capable servant kisses me on the mouth
5 in a chamber where we two are,
my bosom in his hand, presses me with fingers,
works his will . . .
. . . full, when I come forth
. . .
10 Nor can I conceal that . . .
. . . in the light
. . .
so too is it immediately . . .
indicated, what from me . . .
. . . less warrior, when it was pleasant for us two.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 125r 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 229-30.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 61: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 104-5.
Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 63
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