Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/32

Plow, as would be easily recognized by those familiar with its structure. The &ldquo;hoar foe of the forest&rdquo; may mean the man who clears the woodland for his field, the plowman, or the plowshare (&ldquo;the iron which, in the shape of an axe, bears ill-will to the tree&rdquo;). See B. Colgrave, MLR (1937), 281–83. The beak or nose is the plowshare; the wagon is the fore-carriage; the sharp point underneath is the coulter.