Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/46

This is one of the best, and offers several possibilities for expostulation and reply. In l. 1 the original has Agof, which spelled backwards gives foga; and this foga is an older form of boga, &lsquo;bow,&rsquo; as the reader is expected to know. (I have tried to suggest this trick by the form uuob.) In l. 9 the original has ealfelo, a word which occurs only here; it means &lsquo;all-fell&rsquo; or &lsquo;altogether deadly.&rsquo;  L. 14 begins full wer. Full might be the noun meaning &lsquo;cup&rsquo; (and is so glossed by Wyatt), that is, cup of poison; but it is here the adjective, &lsquo;full, complete.&rsquo; Wer, which the reader would naturally take to mean &lsquo;man,&rsquo; is actually short for wergeld, the legal payment for homicide. Thus the first word of the riddle, properly understood, reveals the answer, and the reader can then give his attention to the ambiguous description.