Exeter Riddle 90
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Fri 30 Oct 2020Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 90
This is the famous Latin Riddle – the only non-Old English poem in the Exeter Book!
Original text:
Mirum videtur mihi – lupus ab agno tenetur;
obcu[..]it agnus * * *(1) et capit viscera lupi.
Dum starem et mirarem, vidi gloriam magnam:
duo lupi stantes et tertium tribulantes –
quattuor pedes habebant; cum septem oculis videbant.Translation:
It seems wondrous to me – a wolf is held by a lamb;
the lamb lay down and grasps the wolf’s innards.
While I stood and marveled, I saw a great wonder:
two wolves standing and afflicting a third –
they had four feet; they saw with seven eyes.Lamb of God, Web and Loom, Candelabra
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 129v of The Exeter Book.
The above Latin text is based on this edition, where it is numbered Riddle 86: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 117-18.
Textual Note:
(1) Something seems to be missing here in terms of sense, but there is no damage to the manuscript at this point (only obcu[..]it is damaged by a burnt spot right above the word). Editors frequently sub in a suggested missing word – most commonly rupi (on a stone) because of the rhyme with lupi.
Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles solutions latin riddle 90