Exeter Riddle 43
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Tue 11 Aug 2015Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 43
This riddle comes to us from James Paz, Lecturer in early medieval English literature at the University of Manchester. He’s especially interested in ‘thing theory’ and medieval science. Take it away, James!
Ic wat indryhtne æþelum deorne
giest in geardum, þam se grimma ne mæg
hungor sceððan ne se hata þurst,
yldo ne adle. Gif him arlice
5 esne þenað, se þe agan sceal
on þam siðfate, hy gesunde æt ham
findað witode him wiste ond blisse,
cnosles unrim, care, gif se esne
his hlaforde hyreð yfle,
10 frean on fore. Ne wile forht wesan
broþor oþrum; him þæt bam sceðeð,
þonne hy from bearme begen hweorfað
anre magan ellorfuse,
moddor ond sweostor. Mon, se þe wille,
15 cyþe cynewordum hu se cuma hatte,
eðþa se esne, þe ic her ymb sprice.
I know a worthy one, treasured for nobility,
a guest in dwellings, whom grim hunger
cannot harm, nor hot thirst,
nor age, nor illness. If the servant
5 serves him honourably, he who must possess him
on the journey, they, safe at home,
will find afforded to them well-being and bliss;
an unspeakable progeny of sorrows shall be theirs,
if the servant obeys his lord and master
10 evilly on the way, if one brother will not fear
the other; that will harm them both,
when they turn away, eager to flee
from the breast of their only kinswoman,
mother and sister. Let he who holds the willpower
15 make known in fitting words what the guest is called,
or the servant I speak about here.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folios 112r-112v 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 204.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 41: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 96.
Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 43
Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 43
Exeter Riddle 20
Exeter Riddle 49