Exeter Riddle 4
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Fri 29 Mar 2013Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 4
Ic sceal þragbysig þegne minum,
hringum hæfted, hyran georne,
min bed brecan, breahtme cyþan
þæt me halswriþan hlaford sealde.
5 Oft mec slæpwerigne secg oðþe meowle
gretan eode; ic him gromheortum
winterceald oncweþe. Wearm lim
gebundenne bæg hwilum bersteð;
se þeah biþ on þonce þegne minum,
10 medwisum men, me þæt sylfe,
þær wiht wite, ond wordum min
on sped mæge spel gesecgan.
At times busy, bound by rings,
I must eagerly obey my thane,
break my bed, proclaim with a cry
that my lord gave me a neck-torque.
5 Often a man or woman came to greet me,
sleep-weary; I answer them, winter-cold,
the hostile-hearted ones. A warm limb
sometimes bursts the bound ring;
however, that is agreeable to my thane,
10 the half-witted man, and to myself,
if I could know anything, and tell my story
successfully with words.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 102v 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 183.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 2: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 70.
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