Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/25

25 (k-d 72)

[The first few lines are defective.]

I was little …     … my sister fed me. … Often I tugged     at four dear brothers, each one gave me     daily to drink, through a hole freely.     I throve happily until I was older     and left all that to the swarthy herdsman.     I traveled farther to the Welsh marches,     traversed the moors, bound under a beam.     I had a ring on my neck, suffered woes on my way,     was forced to perform my share of labors.     Often the goad hurt me sorely on my sides.     But I was silent, never spoke out     to any man, if ever the pricks     were painful to me.

10

Ic wæs lytel […] fo[…] […]te geaf ·     […] […]pe     þe unc gemæne […] […] sweostor mīn fedde mec […]     oft ic feower teah swæse broþor     þara onsundran gehwylc dægtidū me     drincan sealde þurh þyrel þearle     Ic þæh on lust oþþæt Ic wæs yldra     ⁊ þæt anforlet sweartū hyrde     siþade widdor mearc paþas walas træd     moras pæðde bunden under beame     beag hæfde on healse wean on laste     weorc þrowade earfoða dæl     oft mec isern scōd sare on sidan     ic swigade næfre meldade     monna ængū gif me ordstæpe     egle wæron

The young Ox, fed at its mother’s dugs. It grew up and left the milking to herdsmen; later it was forced to draw a plow.