Riddle n° 85 from the Exeter Book

Listen to the text  

Nís mín sele swíge,     ne ic sylfa hlúd ymb dryhtsele;     unc dryhten scóp síþ ætsomne.     Ic eom swiftra þonne hé, þrágum strengra,     hé þreohtigra. Hwílum ic mé reste;     hé sceal rinnan forð. Ic him in wunige     á þenden ic lifge; gif wit unc gedǽlað,     mé bið déað witod. Hwæt eom ic ? Andswaru Fisc in éa.

My house is not quiet,    I am not loud ; But for us God fashioned    our fate together. I am the swifter,    at times the stronger, My house more enduring,    longer to last. At times I rest;    my dwelling still runs; Within it I lodge    as long as I live. Should we two be severed,    my death is sure. What am I? Answer A fish in a river.

Beyond Tolkien using them in The Hobbit, riddles in verse are an ancient literary game. The Exeter Book, an important collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry from the 10th century, includes a fair number of them.

The text can be found online at the following address: http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a3.34.25.html; one word is mangled, we follow the correction adopted in A guide to Old English.  We added acute accents on long vowels and diphthongs. The last sentences in italics have been composed for the purpose. The modern English translation of the riddle is a rendering into alliterative verse by Charles W. Kennedy.

References

An Anthology of Old English Poetry. Translated into alliterative verse by Charles W. Kennedy. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1960. 174 p.

Irvine, Martin, Everhart, Deborah. The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies. Hosted by: Georgetown University, Washington (D.C.). URL: http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/

Mitchell, Bruce, Robinson, Fred Colson. A guide to Old English. Sixth edition. Oxford, Malden (Mass.): Blackwell, 2001. 400 p. ISBN 0-631-22636-2