Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/58

58 (k-d 32)

Beautifully made     in many ways is this our world,     cunningly adorned. Marvelous is its motion,     I saw this device grind against the gravel,     crying out as it went. This marvelous thing     had no sight nor feeling, neither shoulders nor arms.     One foot only had this curious device     to journey along on, to move over the fields.     It had many ribs, its mouth was midway.     Useful to mortals, it bears abundance     of food to the people, brings them plenty     and pays to men annual tribute     which all enjoy, the high and the lowly.     Explain if you can, who are wise in words,     what this thing may be.

10

Is þes middangeard     missenlicum wisum gewlitegad     wrættum gefrætwad siþum sellic     ic seah searo hweorfan grindan wið greote     giellende faran næfde sellicu wiht     syne ne folme exle ne earmas     sceal on anum fet searoceap swifan     swiþe feran faran ofer feldas     hæfde fella ribba muð wæs on middan     moncynne nyt fere foddurwelan     folcscipe dreogeð wist in wigeð ⁊ werum gieldeð gaful geara gehwam     þæs þe guman brucað rice ⁊ heane     rece gif þu cunne wis worda gleaw     hwæt sio wiht sie

It is a Ship. Its one foot is the keel; the rest is easy. The verbal repetitions are in the original. The first two lines are a formula, as in 44 (k-d 31), which just precedes it in the manuscript, and may be only a careless mechanical repetition on the part of the scribe.