Exeter Riddle 70

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Tue 07 Nov 2017
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 70
The numbering is weird again, folks! What Krapp and Dobbie’s edition of the Exeter Book includes as Riddle 70, Williamson edits as Riddle 67 (lines 1-4) and 68 (lines 5-6). More on this in the commentary!

Original text:

Wiht is wrætlic      þam þe hyre wisan ne conn.
Singeð þurh sidan.      Is se sweora woh,
orþoncum geworht;      hafaþ eaxle tua
scearp on gescyldrum.      His gesceapo dreogeð (1)
5     þe swa wrætlice      be wege stonde
heah ond hleortorht      hæleþum to nytte.

Translation:

Wondrous is a creature to the one who does not know its ways.
It sings through its sides. The neck is curved,
skillfully wrought; it has two shoulders
sharp in its shoulders. It fulfils its destiny …
5     … stand by the way so wondrously
high and cheek-bright, useful to heroes.

Click to show riddle solution?
(Church) Bell, Shawm/Shepherd’s Pipe, (Double) Flute, Harp, Lyre, Organistrum, Shuttle; Lines 5-6 as a separate riddle: Lighthouse, Candle


Notes:

This riddle appears on folios 125v-126r 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 231-2.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddles 67 and 68: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 107.

Textual Note:

(1) Note that this term doesn’t appear in the manuscript, but has been added in by many editors because the verb dreogan (to fulfill/endure) accompanies the noun gesceap (destiny/fate/nature) elsewhere in the Old English poetic corpus.



Tags: anglo saxon  exeter book  riddles  old english  solutions  riddle 70 

Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 15
Response to Exeter Riddle 39
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 77