Page:Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book (1963).djvu/49

 Jay or Jackdaw. Some of the apparent inconsistencies may be intended to confuse the listeners.

My beak was close fettered, the currents of ocean, running cold beneath me. There I grew in the sea, my body close to the moving wood. I was all alive when I came from the water, clad all in black, but a part of me white. When living, the air lifted me up, the wind from the wave, and bore me afar, up over the seal&rsquo;s bath. Tell me my name.

Barnacle Goose. There was a popular belief that it was born from a barnacle growing on wood, the plank of a boat, or a submerged tree trunk. Dr. Johnson&rsquo;s first definition of Barnacle is &ldquo;A bird like a goose, fabulously supposed to grow on trees.&rdquo; The &ldquo;currents&rdquo; in l. 1 are literally a mountain stream.