Exeter Riddle 63

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Mon 29 May 2017
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 63

FYI, the manuscript is pretty damaged here, so the last few lines are impossible to reconstruct. Try to enjoy nonetheless!



Original text:

Oft ic secga      seledreame sceal
fægre onþeon,      þonne ic eom forð boren
glæd mid golde,      þær guman drincað.
Hwilum mec on cofan     cysseð muþe
5     tillic esne,     þær wit tu beoþ,
fæðme on folm[. . . . .]grum þyð,
wyrceð his willa[. . . . . .]ð l[. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .] fulre,     þonne ic forð cyme
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
10     Ne mæg ic þy miþan,       [. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .]an on leohte
[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
swylce eac bið sona
. .]r[.]te getacnad,     hwæt me to [. . . .
15     . . . .]leas rinc,     þa unc geryde wæs.

Translation:

Often I must prosper fairly among the hall-joy
of men, when I am carried forth
shining with gold, where men drink.
Sometimes a capable servant kisses me on the mouth
5     in a chamber where we two are,
my bosom in his hand, presses me with fingers,
works his will . . .
. . . full, when I come forth
. . .
10     Nor can I conceal that . . .
. . . in the light
. . .
so too is it immediately . . .
indicated, what from me . . .
. . . less warrior, when it was pleasant for us two.

Click to show riddle solution?
Glass beaker, Flask, Flute


Notes:

This riddle appears on folio 125r 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 229-30.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 61: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 104-5.



Tags: anglo saxon  exeter book  riddles  old english  solutions  riddle 63 

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