Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/4

The usual answer is Moon and Day. The paradoxes remind one of 11 ( 40), with which it has some metrical and stylistic similarities. Both may be by the same author. Mrs. von Erhardt-Siebold, who regards it as &ldquo;one of the finest&rdquo; and praises its &ldquo;ingenious and fascinating poetry,&rdquo; offers the tempting solution (PMLA [1946], 910–15) of Hypostatized Death, in the manner of Plato. She divides it into seven parts (as printed above): death is not real, not abstract; it comes privately and only once; it is a &ldquo;suprasensible entity&rdquo;; it is not really lifeless: it has eternal life; this is not conjecture, but fact; you first explain it and then name it.