when I get to the top of the hill and turn on him
with weapons of war, whom I formerly fled from.
Badger. The coloring is not quite accurate, but near enough, and some allowance must be made for evasive detail. The word hildepilum in l. 28 properly means ‘javelins’ or ‘darts’ and has suggested that the porcupine was meant. But the riddler has a good answer. He has loaded his lines with epic compounds—six of them hapaxes—evidently to create an atmosphere of heroic battle. When the badger gets into the open he fights the dog as man to man.
- s30 ##
30 (K-D 77)
The sea fed me; the water-helm was over me,
and waves covered me, close to the ground.
I was footless. Often toward the water
I opened my mouth. Now people will
eat my meat. They want not my skin.
When they rip my hide with the point of a knife
. . . . . . . . .
Then they eat me uncooked. . . .
Oyster.
