Riddle 4 from The Exeter Book
[Image of Riddle 4 from Folio 102v of The Exeter Book]
Source of the image: Chambers, R. W., M. Förster, and R. Flower, eds. The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry. London: P. Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd., 1933, folio 102v.
[Text of Riddle 4 in Anglo Saxon]
hringum hæfted, hyran georne,
min bed brecan, breahtme cyþan
þæt me halswriþan hlaford sealde.
Oft mec slæpwerigne secg oðþe meowle
gretan eode; ic him gromheortum
winterceald oncweþe. Wearm lim
gebundenne bæg hwilum bersteð;
se þeah biþ on þonce þegne minum,
medwisum men, me þæt sylfe,
þær wiht wite, ond wordum min
on sped mæge spel gesecgan.
Source of the text in Anglo Saxon - George Philip Krapp and Elliott van Kirk Dobbie, eds., The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records vol. III (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), page 183.
[English translation by Phyllis Levin]
Busy from Time to Time, in Rings
Busy from time to time, in rings
bound, I shall obey my servant eagerly,
break my bed and suddenly call out
that my lord has given me a neck-collar.
Often a man or a maid will greet me,
sleepweary; grim-hearted, I give
a winter-cold answer. A warm limb
sometimes bursts the bound ring,
which is pleasing to my servant,
a feeble-minded man; to me, as well,
if you'd like to know, and if my words
ring true my story may be told.
Source of the text in English translation - The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, edited by Greg Delanty and Michael Matto. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, p. 74-75.
TJB: Time-pressed; neck-bound. Solid bricks & polysemous mortar lead to near infinite possible translations. The answer? Bell, plough, dick—Who knows?
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