Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/14
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14 (k-d 30)
| I am an active flame; I sport with the wind, enwound with wonder, enwrapped by the storm, eager on my way, troubled by fire, a blooming grove, a burning flame. Friends often pass me from hand to hand so that men and women proudly kiss me. When I rise up they bow down to me, many joyfully, where I shall add to the oncoming of blessedness to men. |
Ic eom legbysig lace mid winde bewunden mid wuldre wedre gesomnad fus forðweges fyre gebysgad bearu blowende byrnende gled ful oft mec gesiþas sendað æfter hondum þā mec weras ⁊ wif wlonce cyssað þōn ic mec onhæbbe ⁊ hi on hin gaþ to me monige mid miltse þær ic monnum sceal ycan upcyme eadignesse |
Ic eom ligbysig lace mid winde w[…]dre gesomnad fus forðweges fyre gemylted bear[…] blowende byrnende gled ful oft mec gesiþas sendað æfter hondum þær mec weras ⁊ wif wlonce gecyssað þōn ic mec onhæbbe hi onhnigað to me modge miltsum swa ic mongum sceal ycan upcyme eadignesse |
The first four lines give a free and fanciful picture of a tree; then by a conventional association the tree becomes the Cross. (See also the preceding riddle.) This solution was first proposed by F. A. Blackburn in JEGP iii (1900), 4–7, and has been generally accepted with reservations about cup and harp. His translation is as follows:
- I am agile of body, I sport with the breeze; [tree]
I am clothed with beauty, a comrade of the storm; [tree]
I am bound on a journey, consumed by fire; [ship, tree]
A blooming grove, a burning gleed, [tree, log]
Full often comrades pass me from hand to hand, [harp]
Where stately men and women kiss me. [cup?]
When I rise up, before me bow
The proud with reverence. Thus it is my part
To increase for many the growth of happiness. [the cross]
In the first line “agile of body” is from the other text of this riddle in Exeter Book (f. 122b), where the variants add to the difficulties of translation but do little or nothing for the solution.