Page:Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book (1963).djvu/77

 of which are visible to the naked eye; sixty is a round number for the surrounding stars.


 * 1) s64 ##

He sat at his wine with his two wives and his two sons and his two daughters, the beloved sisters, and their two sons, goodly first born. The father of each of these noble ones was there and there also an uncle and a nephew. Five in all, men and women, were sitting together.

Namely, Lot and his two daughters and their two children, Moab and Ben Ammi (Gen. 19: 30–38).


 * 1) s65 ##

I saw two captives carried in the house under the hall-roof; sturdy were they both; companions they were, fast bound together. Close to one of them was a dark-skinned slave. She controlled them both by fast fetters.

This at least invites guessing: for example, two Buckets from a well, or perhaps Flail (the two captives being handle and swingle).


 * 1) s66 ##

I was a young woman, a fair-haired lady, and at the same time a peerless warrior; I flew with the birds and swam in the sea, dove under the wave, and was dead among fishes, and I walked on the ground. I had a living soul.

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