Exeter Riddle 72
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Mon 11 Dec 2017Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 72
Our translation of (the somewhat damaged) Riddle 72 comes to us from Robert Stanton, Associate Professor of English at Boston College. Robert works on medieval literature, animal studies and translation…so he’s pretty perfect for this riddle. Read on to find out why!
Ic wæs lytel …
fo …
… te geaf …
…pe þe unc gemæne …
5 … sweostor min,
fedde mec … oft ic feower teah
swæse broþor, þara onsundran gehwylc
dægtidum me drincan sealde
þurh þyrel þearle. Ic þæh on lust,
10 oþþæt ic wæs yldra ond þæt anforlet
sweartum hyrde; siþade widdor,
mearcpaþas Walas træd, moras pæðde,
bunden under beame, beag hæfde on healse,
wean on laste weorc þrowade,
15 earfoða dæl. Oft mec isern scod
sare on sidan; ic swigade,
næfre meldade monna ængum
gif me ordstæpe egle wæron.
I was little…
…
…gave…
[was?] common to us two,
5 … my sister,
fed me … often I pulled four
favorite brothers; each of them separately
gave me a drink in the day-time
abundantly through a hole. I grew up in pleasure,
10 until I was older and gave that up
to a dark herder; I traveled more widely,
trod the paths of the Welsh marches, traveled the moors,
bound under a beam, had a ring on my neck,
on a path of woe endured toil,
15 a share of hardships. Often iron hurt me
sorely in the side; I was silent,
never accused any man
if goad-pricks were painful to me.
Notes:
This riddle appears on folio 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 232-3.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 70: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 107-8.
Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 72 robert stanton
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