Exeter Riddle 93
MEGANCAVELL
Date: Mon 11 Jan 2021Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 93
The beginning and end of this riddle are obscured by the burn that has damaged both pages the poem appears on, but there is plenty of excitement in the middle!
Original text:
Frea min
...de willum sinum,
......
heah ond hyht...
5 ...rpne, hwilum
...wilum sohte
frea... ...s wod,
dægrime frod, deo... ...s ,
hwilum stealc hliþo stigan sceolde
10 up in eþel, hwilum eft gewat
in deop dalu duguþe secan
strong on stæpe, stanwongas grof
hrimighearde, hwilum hara scoc
forst of feaxe. Ic on fusum rad
15 oþþæt him þone gleawstol gingra broþor
min agnade ond mec of earde adraf.
Siþþan mec isern innanweardne
brun bennade; blod ut ne com,
heolfor of hreþre, þeah mec heard bite
20 stiðecg style. No ic þa stunde bemearn,
ne for wunde weop, ne wrecan meahte
on wigan feore wonnsceaft mine,
ac ic aglæca ealle þolige,
þæt ...e bord biton. Nu ic blace swelge
25 wuda ond wætre, w... ...b... befæðme
þæt mec on fealleð ufan þær ic stonde,
eorpes nathwæt; hæbbe anne fot.
Nu min hord warað hiþende feond,
se þe ær wide bær wulfes gehleþan;
30 oft me of wombe bewaden fereð,
steppeð on stið bord, …
deaþes d... þonne dægcondel,
sunne …
...eorc eagum wliteð
35 ond spe....
Translation:
My lord …
… according to his wishes
…
high and hope…
5 … [sha]rp, sometimes
…sometimes sought
lord… went,
aged in the count of days dee[p]… ,
sometimes had to ascend steep hillsides
10 up in the homeland, sometimes departed again
into deep dales to seek a troop
strong in step, dig up the stony plains
hard with rime, sometimes the hoary frost
shook out of his hair. I rode on the eager one
15 until my younger brother claimed for himself
the seat of wisdom and drove me from my homeland.
Afterwards dusky iron wounded me
inwardly; blood did not come forth,
gore from the heart, although the hard thing bit me,
20 the strong-edged steel. I did not bemoan that time,
nor weep because of the wound, nor might I take vengeance
on the warrior’s life for my misfortune,
but I suffer all the miseries,
that … have snapped at shields. Now I swallow black
25 wood and water, … embrace
what falls on me from above where I stand,
something dark; I have one foot.
Now a pillaging enemy protects my hoard,
who once widely carried the companion of the wolf;
30 often travels, filled from my belly,
steps onto a hard board, …
death’s … when the day-candle,
sun …
… gazes with eyes
35 and …
Ink-well, Antler, Horn
Notes:
This riddle appears on folios 130r-130v 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 241-2.
Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 89: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 119-20.
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