Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/67

This, the last riddle in the Exeter book, is unhappily the most difficult. The text is complete but almost certainly corrupt, and any attempt to translate it is only a desperate hope, even after the experts have done their best with emendations.

Perhaps Moon, perhaps Wandering Minstrel, perhaps Riddle. If the last, this is &ldquo;a kind of monkish colophon to the collection&rdquo; (Wyatt). Mrs. von Earhardt-Siebold (MLN [1947], 558–59), taking &ldquo;the delight of plunders&rdquo; as a kenning for Quill-pen, would make that a clue to the solution.