Arts & Sciences

Riddle 22: Month

by Anonymous (Old English) c. 7th–11th century

Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Everyman’s Library, 1926) · From Exeter Book Riddles (selection)

Arts & Sciences

Sixty men came riding together on horses to the shore; the horsemen had eleven horses of peace, four white horses. The warriors could not pass over the sea as they desired, but the flood was too deep, dire the press of waves, high the banks, strong the currents. Then the men began to mount the wagon, and they loaded their horses together under the pole. Then the wagon bore forth the horses, the steeds and earls, proud with ashen spears, to the land across the water's abode; an ox did not draw it thus, nor the strength of asses, nor a road-horse; nor did it swim on the flood, nor go on the ground beneath its guests, nor did it stir the sea, nor fly in the air, nor return backwards; yet it brought the warriors over the stream from the high shore, and their white horses with them, so that they, the brave ones, stepped up on the other bank, the men out of the wagon and their horses in safety.

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

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Gordon's riddle headed 'Month' (his selection gives headings, not numbers); ASPR Riddle 22.

MLA

Anonymous (Old English). “Riddle 22: Month.” Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/242/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Old English). “Riddle 22: Month.” Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/242/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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