Exeter Riddle 73

VICTORIASYMONS

Date: Tue 30 Jan 2018
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 73
Original text:

Ic on wonge aweox,     wunode þær mec feddon
hruse ond heofonwolcn,     oþþæt me onhwyrfdon
gearum frodne,     þa me grome wurdon,
of þære gecynde     þe ic ær cwic beheold,
5     onwendan mine wisan,     wegedon mec of earde,
gedydon þæt ic sceolde     wiþ gesceape minum
on bonan willan     bugan hwilum.
Nu eom mines frean     folme bysigo[.
…..]dlan dæl,     gif his ellen deag,
10     oþþe æfter dome     [.]ri[………
…………]an     mæ[.]þa fremman,
wyrcan w[………………..
……]ec on þeode     utan we[……
…………………..]ipe
15     ond to wrohtstæp[……………….
…………]eorp,     eaxle gegyrde,
wo[……………………….]
ond swiora smæl,     sidan fealwe
[………………..]     þonne mec heaþosigel
20     scir bescineð     ond mec [……..]
fægre feormað     ond on fyrd wigeð
cræfte on hæfte.     Cuð is wide
þæt ic þrista sum     þeofes cræfte
under hrægnlocan  […]
25     hwilum eawunga     eþelfæsten
forðweard brece,     þæt ær frið hæfde.
Feringe from,     he fus þonan
wendeð of þam wicum,     wiga se þe mine
wisan cunne.     Saga hwæt ic hatte.

Translation:

I grew on a plain, lived where the earth
and the clouds of heaven fed me, until the ones who were hostile to me
took me, wise in years,
from the native place which I previously held when alive,
5     changed my ways, shook me from the earth,
made it so that I must – against my nature –
sometimes bow in a killer’s service.
Now I am busy in my lord’s hand[.
…..] share, if his valour avails,
10     until after judgement […………
……………….] to advance,
to work [.………………..
……..] to the people let us [……
……………………..]
15     and to strife-stepping(?)[……………….
………….…], girded shoulders,
[…………………………]
and a small neck, dark sides
[………………..] when the bright battle-sun
20     shines on me and me […….]
nourishes well, and wields in war
with skill by the haft. It is widely known
that with a thief’s skill, I (go) alone among the bold,
into the brain-pan […]
25     at times I break forth openly
in a familiar fortress, that previously had peace.
Then eagerly he turns from that place,
bold for the journey, the warrior who
knows my nature. Say what I am called.

Click to show riddle solution?
Spear, Bow, Cross


Notes:

This riddle appears on folios 126r-126v 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 233-4.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 71: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 108-9.



Tags: anglo saxon  exeter book  riddles  old english  solutions  riddle 73 

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