Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/35

35 (k-d 4)

Bound with rings     I must readily obey from time to time     my servant and master and break my rest,     make noisily known that he gave me a band     to put on my neck. Often a man or a woman     has come to greet me, when weary with sleep,     wintry-cold, I answer him: (their hearts were angry):     “A warm limb sometimes bursts     the bound ring.” Nonetheless it is pleasant     to him, my servant, a half-witted man,     and to me the same, if one knows aught     and can then with words riddle my riddle     successfully.

10

Ic sceal þragbysig     þegne minum hringan 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 seþeah biþ on þonce     þegne minum medwisum men     me ꝥ sylfe þær wiht wite     ⁊ wordum mīn on sped mæge     spel gesecgan :⁊

A Bell speaks, calling the man who rings it servant and master; tells how it rouses the sleepers on a cold wintry morning. The “bound rings,” e.g., is the “bell.” There is something a little wrong in l. 8, perhaps an omission which would make the speech clearer; and “burst” is not normally transitive in Anglo-Saxon. Mrs. von Erhardt-Siebold (PMLA lxi [1946], 620–23) argues for Handmill, and gives a diagram.