Exeter Riddle 8
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Wed 29 May 2013Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 8
Original text:
Ic þurh muþ sprece mongum reordum,
wrencum singe, wrixle geneahhe
heafodwoþe, hlude cirme,
healde mine wisan, hleoþre ne miþe,
5 eald æfensceop, eorlum bringe
blisse in burgum, þonne ic bugendre
stefne styrme; stille on wicum
sittað nigende. Saga hwæt ic hatte,
þe swa scirenige sceawendwisan
10 hlude onhyrge, hæleþum bodige
wilcumena fela woþe minre.Translation:
I speak through my mouth with many sounds,
I sing with modulation, frequently vary
my voice, call loudly,
stick to my ways, I do not stifle my speech,
5 an old evening-singer, I bring delight
to dwellers in the cities, when I bellow
with bending voice; still in their homes,
they sit silently. Say what I am called,
who, like an actress, loudly imitates
10 the entertainer’s song, proclaims to people
many greetings with my speaking.Nightingale (likely), Pipe or Flute, all manner of other birds, etc
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 103r 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 185.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 6: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 72.
Tags: riddle 8 anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions
Related Posts:
Exeter Riddle 23
Exeter Riddle 24
Exeter Riddle 33