Page:Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book (1963).djvu/56

 it bears water aloft. It boasts not of life or of gifts from its chief. It obeys nonetheless its master&rsquo;s word. In its name there are three real runes. R&#257;d is the first.

R&#257;d is the name of the rune for R and also means &lsquo;riding&rsquo; (note also &ldquo;rides&rdquo; in l. 3); in short, a Riding-well, or well with bucket and sweep.


 * 1) s35 ##

Bound with rings I must readily obey from time to time my servant and master and break my rest, make noisily known that he gave me a band to put on my neck. Often a man or a woman has come to greet me, when weary with sleep, wintry-cold, I answer him: (their hearts were angry): &ldquo;A warm limb sometimes bursts the bound ring.&rdquo; Nonetheless it is pleasant to him, my servant, a half-witted man, and to me the same, if one knows aught and can then with words riddle my riddle successfully.

A Bell speaks, calling the man who rings it servant and master; tells how it rouses the sleepers on a cold wintry morning. The &ldquo;bound rings,&rdquo; e.g., is the &ldquo;bell.&rdquo; There is something a little wrong in l. 8, perhaps an omission which would make the speech clearer; and &ldquo;burst&rdquo; is not normally transitive in Anglo-Saxon. Mrs. von Erhardt-Siebold (PMLA [1946], 620–23) argues for Handmill, and gives a diagram.


 * 1) s36 ##

I have a puffed-out breast and a swollen neck; I have a head and a tall tail; I have eyes and ears and a single foot, a rough hard bill and a long neck and two sides; hollow in the middle.