Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/66

One guess is Siren; another Water. If the latter, one would rather say Rain: a gentle shower, a heavy downpour, in the sea its natural form (its life) is lost; a little imagination can see it as hail walking on the ground. A third solution is offered by Mrs. von Erhardt-Siebold (Medium &AElig;vum [1946], 48–54), comparing Frag. 117 of Empedocles:


 * Once I was a young man, maiden, plant, bird, and mute fish cast ashore.

This, of course, is not a riddle, but an expression of cyclic metamorphosis. Just how an Anglo-Saxon came to know Empedocles is not clear.