Exeter Riddle 85

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Thu 20 Jun 2019
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 85
Original text:

Nis min sele swige,         ne ic sylfa hlud
ymb * * *(1) unc dryhten scop
siþ ætsomne.         Ic eom swiftre þonne he,
þragum strengra,         he þreohtigra.
Hwilum ic me reste;         he sceal yrnan forð.
Ic him in wunige         a þenden ic lifge;
gif wit unc gedælað,         me bið deað witod.

Translation:

My house is not silent, nor am I loud myself
about … the lord created for us two
a journey together. I am swifter than he,
stronger at times, he the more enduring.
Sometimes I rest myself; he must run forth.
I always dwell within him for as long as I live;
if we two are divided, death is certain for me.

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Fish and River, Body and Soul


Notes:

This riddle appears on folio 128v 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 238.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 81: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 115.

Textual Note:

(1) There’s a blank space in the manuscript here with room for about seven letters



Tags: anglo saxon  exeter book  riddles  old english  solutions  riddle 85 

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