Exeter Riddle 40
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Wed 24 Jun 2015Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 40
This riddle is super-duper long! You’ll understand why when you get to the solution…
Ece is se scyppend, se þas eorþan nu
wreðstuþum wealdeð ond þas world healdeð.
Rice is se reccend ond on ryht cyning
ealra anwalda, eorþan ond heofones,
5 healdeð ond wealdeð, swa he ymb þas utan hweorfeð.
He mec wrætlice worhte æt frymþe,
þa he þisne ymbhwyrft ærest sette,
heht mec wæccende wunian longe,
þæt ic ne slepe siþþan æfre,
10 ond mec semninga slæp ofergongeþ,
beoð eagan min ofestum betyned.
Þisne middangeard meahtig dryhten
mid his onwalde æghwær styreð;
swa ic mid waldendes worde ealne
15 þisne ymbhwyrft utan ymbclyppe.
Ic eom to þon bleað, þæt mec bealdlice mæg
gearu gongende grima abregan,
ond eofore eom æghwær cenra,
þonne he gebolgen bidsteal giefeð;
20 ne mæg mec oferswiþan segnberendra
ænig ofer eorþan, nymþe se ana god
se þisne hean heofon healdeþ ond wealdeþ.
Ic eom on stence strengre micle
þonne ricels oþþe rose sy,
25 [a half-line is missing here] on eorþan tyrf
wynlic weaxeð; ic eom wræstre þonne heo.
Þeah þe lilie sy leof moncynne,
beorht on blostman, ic eom betre þonne heo;
swylce ic nardes stenc nyde oferswiþe
30 mid minre swetnesse symle æghwær,
ond ic fulre eom þonne þis fen swearte
þæt her yfle adelan stinceð.
Eal ic under heofones hwearfte recce,
swa me leof fæder lærde æt frymþe,
35 þæt ic þa mid ryhte reccan moste
þicce ond þynne; þinga gehwylces
onlicnesse æghwær healde.
Hyrre ic eom heofone, hateþ mec heahcyning
his deagol þing dyre bihealdan;
40 eac ic under eorþan eal sceawige
wom wraðscrafu wraþra gæsta.
Ic eom micle yldra þonne ymbhwyrft þes
oþþe þes middangeard meahte geweorþan,
ond ic giestron wæs geong acenned
45 mære to monnum þurh minre modor hrif.
Ic eom fægerre frætwum goldes,
þeah hit mon awerge wirum utan;
ic eom wyrslicre þonne þes wudu fula
oððe þis waroð þe her aworpen ligeð.
50 Ic eorþan eom æghwær brædre,
ond widgielra þonne þes wong grena;
folm mec mæg bifon ond fingras þry
utan eaþe ealle ymbclyppan.
Heardra ic eom ond caldra þonne se hearda forst,
55 hrim heorugrimma, þonne he to hrusan cymeð;
ic eom Ulcanus up irnendan
leohtan leoman lege hatra.
Ic eom on goman gena swetra
þonne þu beobread blende mid hunige;
60 swylce ic eom wraþre þonne wermod sy,
þe her on hyrstum heasewe stondeþ.
Ic mesan mæg meahtelicor
ond efnetan ealdum þyrse,
ond ic gesælig mæg symle lifgan
65 þeah ic ætes ne sy æfre to feore.
Ic mæg fromlicor fleogan þonne pernex
oþþe earn oþþe hafoc æfre meahte;
nis zefferus, se swifta wind,
þæt swa fromlice mæg feran æghwær;
70 me is snægl swiftra, snelra regnwyrm
ond fenyce fore hreþre;
is þæs gores sunu gonge hrædra,
þone we wifel wordum nemnað.
Hefigere ic eom micle þonne se hara stan
75 oþþe unlytel leades clympre,
leohtre ic eom micle þonne þes lytla wyrm
þe her on flode gæð fotum dryge.
Flinte ic eom heardre þe þis fyr drifeþ
of þissum strongan style heardan,
80 hnescre ic eom micle halsrefeþre,
seo her on winde wæweð on lyfte.
Ic eorþan eom æghwær brædre
ond widgelra þonne þes wong grena;
ic uttor eaþe eal ymbwinde,
85 wrætlice gewefen wundorcræfte.
Nis under me ænig oþer
wiht waldendre on worldlife;
ic eom ufor ealra gesceafta,
þara þe worhte waldend user,
90 se mec ana mæg ecan meahtum,
geþeon þrymme, þæt ic onþunian ne sceal.
Mara ic eom ond strengra þonne se micla hwæl,
se þe garsecges grund bihealdeð
sweartan syne; ic eom swiþre þonne he,
95 swylce ic eom on mægene minum læsse
þonne se hondwyrm, se þe hæleþa bearn,
secgas searoþoncle, seaxe delfað.
Nu hafu ic in heafde hwite loccas
wræste gewundne, ac ic eom wide calu;
100 ne ic breaga ne bruna brucan moste,
ac mec bescyrede scyppend eallum;
nu me wrætlice weaxað on heafde
þæt me on gescyldrum scinan motan
ful wrætlice wundne loccas.
105 Mara ic eom ond fættra þonne amæsted swin,
bearg bellende, þe on bocwuda,
won wrotende wynnum lifde
þæt he … [a page is missing in the manuscript here at the end]
The creator is eternal, he who now controls
and holds this earth to its foundations.
The ruler is powerful and king by right,
the lone wielder of all, he holds and controls
5 earth and heaven, just as he encompasses about these things.
He wondrously created me in the beginning,
when he first built this world,
commanded me to remain watching for a long time,
so that I should not sleep ever after,
10 and sleep comes upon me suddenly,
my eyes are quickly shut.
The mighty lord controls in every respect
this middle-earth with his power;
just as I by the word of my leader
15 entirely enclose this globe.
I am so timid that a spectre quickly
travelling can frighten me fully,
and I am everywhere bolder
than a boar when he, enraged, makes a stand;
20 no standard-bearer in the world
can overpower me, except the one God
who holds and controls this high heaven.
I am in scent much stronger
than incense or rose are,
25 [a half-line is missing here] in the turf of the earth
agreeably grows; I am more delicate than she.
Although the lily is beloved to humankind,
bright in blossom, I am better than she;
likewise I necessarily overpower the nard’s scent
30 with my sweetness everywhere at all times,
and I am fouler than this dark fen
that stinks nastily here with its filth.
I rule all under the circuit of heaven,
just as the beloved father taught me in the beginning,
35 so that I might rule by right
the thick and thin; I held the likeness
everywhere of everything.
Higher I am than heaven, the high-king calls commands me
secretly to behold his mysterious nature;
40 I also see all the impure, foul dens
of evil spirits under the earth.
I am much older than this world
or this middle-earth might become,
and I was born young yesterday
45 famous among humans through my mother’s womb.
I am fairer than treasure of gold,
though it be covered all over with wires;
I am more vile than this foul wood
or this sea-weed that lies cast up here.
50 I am broader everywhere than the earth,
and wider than this green plain;
a hand can seize me and three fingers
easily enclose me entirely.
I am harder and colder than the hard frost
55 the sword-grim rime, when it goes to the ground;
I am hotter than the fire of bright light
of Vulcan moving quickly on high.
I am yet sweeter in the mouth
than when you blend bee-bread with honey;
60 likewise I am harsher than wormwood is,
which stands here grey in the wood.
I can feast more mightily
and eat as much as an old giant,
and I can live happily forever
65 although I see no food ever again.
I can fly faster than a pernex
or an eagle or a hawk ever might;
there is no zephyr, that swift wind,
that can journey anywhere faster;
70 a snail is swifter than me, an earth-worm quicker
and the fen-turtle journeys faster;
the son of dung is speedier of step,
that which we call in words ‘weevil’.
I am much heavier than the grey stone
75 or an not-little lump of lead,
I am much lighter than this little insect
that walks here on the water with dry feet.
I am harder than the flint that forces this fire
from this strong, hard steel,
80 I am much softer than the downy-feather,
that blows about here in the air on the breeze.
I am broader everywhere than the earth
and wider than this green plain;
I easily encircle everything,
85 miraculously woven with wondrous skill.
There is no other creature under me
more powerful in this worldly life;
I am above all created things,
those that our ruler wrought,
90 he alone can increase my might,
subdue my strength, so that I do not swell up.
I am bigger and stronger than the great whale,
that beholds the bottom of the sea
with its dark countenance; I am stronger than he,
95 likewise I am less in my strength
than the hand-worm, which the children of warriors,
clever-minded men, dig out with a knife.
I do not have light locks on my head,
delicately wound, but I am bare far and wide;
100 nor might I enjoy eyelids nor eyebrows,
but the creator deprived me of all;
now wondrously wound locks
grow on my head, so that they might shine
on my shoulders most wondrously,
105 I am bigger and fatter than a fattened swine,
a swarthy boar, who lived joyfully
bellowing in a beech-wood, rooting away,
so that he … [a page is missing in the manuscript here at the end]
Notes:
This riddle appears on folios 110r-111v 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 200-3.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 38: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 91-4.
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Commentary for Exeter Riddle 40
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Wed 10 Jun 2015Matching Riddle: Exeter Riddle 40
I hope that you’ve all enjoyed reading the marathon of a poem that is Riddle 40. It reaches a grand total of 109 lines before a missing manuscript page deprives us of its no doubt beauteous ending. And, indeed, Riddle 40 is a work of beauty. Where else do you hear seamlessly poetic phrasing like: “I am fouler than this dark fen that stinks nastily here with its filth” (lines 31-2), or “I am more vile than this foul wood or this sea-weed that lies cast up here” (lines 48-9), or “the son of dung is speedier of step, that which we call in words ‘weevil’” (lines 72-3)? This is truly a poem after my own heart.
Admittedly, there are pretty images in here too. In fact, that’s kind of the point: the riddle puts forward a list of paradoxes as if to ask what can be both all the goods things and all the bad things. That’s why the poem reminds me of a combination of “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and the Monty Python spoof song “All Things Dull and Ugly.” Because, of course, this is a creation-riddle. What makes me so sure? Riddle 40 is one of those occasional Old English riddles with a known Latin original. In this case, the final text in Aldhelm’s riddle collection: Enigma 100, De creatura (on creation). And so we have, creatura, gesceaft (in Old English), creation, the world, nature – whatever you want to call it – depicted as the biggest riddle of all.
Now when it comes to the relationship between the Old English and its Latin source, you’re going to have to bear with me. As you might have guessed, like Riddle 40, the Latin original is also pretty frickin’ long. So, I’m not going to quote it in full. But I will say that the first 81 lines of the Old English poem stick fairly closely to the Latin source. After that, the poet (or perhaps another poet?) goes off book a bit (this starts, as you may have noticed, with the wholesale repetition of lines 50-1 at 82-3).
But even when the poem is fairly faithful to its source, there’s a fair bit of room for improvising. My favourites relate to strange creatures. Because, let’s face it, who doesn’t like a made-up bird, an old giant or a gender-bending piggy?
Let’s start with the bird. Lines 66-9 of the Old English riddle read: Ic mæg fromlicor fleogan þonne pernex / oþþe earn oþþe hafoc æfre meahte; nis zefferus, se swifta wind, / þæt swa fromlice mæg feran æghwær (I can fly faster than a pernex or an eagle or a hawk ever might; there is no zephyr, that swift wind, that can journey anywhere faster). Not familiar with the pernex? That’s because it doesn’t exist. The translator appears to have gotten a tad confused when translating the Latin lines 35-6: Plus pernix aquilis, Zephiri velocior alis, / Necnon accipiter properantior (Glorie, vol. 133, page 533) (faster than eagles, quicker than the wings of the Zephyr, nor [is] the hawk speedier). As Janie Steen notes (page 103), it’s possible that the poet confused pernix (swift) with perdix (partridge)…although the partridge is not the speediest of birds…
Photo (by Marek Szczepanek) from the Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
You want more strange creatures? How’s about that old, hungry þyrs (giant) in lines 62-3? This famished fella is a translation of the Cyclopes (plural of Cyclops!) that appear at line 33 of the Latin version. It’s a bit strange that the poet chose to paraphrase here, when other classical references are left in (Vulcan and Zephyrus, for example). Maybe there was no good substitute for them, while hungry, hungry giants have a nice, long tradition in the world of Germanic myth.
Arthur Rackham’s illustration of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen from the Wikimedia Commons.
Hmm…what else is odd about Riddle 40? I suppose my favourite change is made to the pig that comes right at the end of the Old English poem. In Riddle 40, we have a single amæsted swin, / bearg bellende, þe on bocwuda, / won wrotende wynnum lifde (lines 105b-8) (fattened swine, a swarthy boar, who lived joyfully bellowing in a beech-wood, rooting away). In other words, a male pig enjoying his freedom and wild lifestyle. The Latin version, on the other hand, shows us a very different critter:
Pinguior, en, multo scrofarum axungia glisco,
Glandiferis iterum referunt dum corpora fagis
Atque saginata laetantur carne subulci
(Glorie, vol. 133, page 535, lines 48-50).
(See, I grow far fatter than the grease of sows, as they carry their bodies back again from the acorn-bearing beech trees, and the swineherds rejoice at the fattened flesh).
The Latin pig is female and fat because she’s a food animal. So, joyous, romping dude-pig on the one hand, and domesticated female who’s destined to be eaten on the other. Erin Sebo notes that the Old English translator adapts this image and removes the only other reference to food in the Latin poem, arguing that the Old English poet is more interested in awe-inspiring creation than tense hierarchies of creator/created (and in this case, human/nonhuman).
A pig at Bede’s World in Jarrow stares me down. Photo courtesy of C.J.W. Brown.
This isn’t the only time that the Old English poet intentionally changes the tone/meaning of the Latin source. We also end up with a reference to bee-bread in lines 58-9: Ic eom on goman gena swetra / þonne þu beobread blende mid hunige (I am yet sweeter in the mouth than when you blend bee-bread with honey). In the Latin version, we have: Dulcior in palato quam lenti nectaris haustus (Glorie, vol. 133, page 533, line 31) (Sweeter on the palate than a draught of smooth nectar). As Patrick Murphy notes (pages 155-6), the wording of Riddle 40 implies that the translator was familiar with Psalm 18.11: Desiderabilia super aurum et lapidem pretiosum multum; et dulciora super mel et favum (More to be desired than gold and many precious stones: and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb) (from Douay-Rheims). “Bee-bread” is honeycomb, as Latin/Old English glosses tell us. But it’s also a pretty awesome compound in and of itself. Remember that next time you order yourself up a double-scoop of honeycomb ice cream.
Wait…did someone just say ice cream? Sorry to leave you there without a proper conclusion, but…uh…ice cream.
I’m off.
References and Suggested Reading:
Glorie, F., ed. Variae Collectiones Aenigmatum Merovingicae Aetatis. Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, vol. 133-133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968.
Murphy, Patrick J. Unriddling the Exeter Riddles. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2011.
O’Brien O’Keeffe, Katherine. “Exeter Riddle 40: The Art of an Old English Translator.” Proceedings of the Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Conference, vol. 5 (1983 for 1980), pages 107-17.
O’Brien O’Keeffe, Katherine. “The Text of Aldhelm’s Enigma no. c in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C.697 and Exeter Riddle 40.” Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 14 (1985), pages 61-73.
Sebo, Erin. “The Creation Riddle and Anglo-Saxon Cosmology.” In The Anglo-Saxons: The World Through Their Eyes. Edited by Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Brian W. Schneider. Oxford: Archeaopress, 2014, pages 149-56.
Steen, Janie. Verse and Virtuosity: The Adaptation of Latin Rhetoric in Old English Poetry. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
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