Arts & Sciences
Riddle XXXVIII. A Bullock
Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Everyman’s Library, 1926) · From Exeter Book Riddles (selection)
I saw a creature of the weaponed kind; greedy of the joy of youth, he allowed as a gift to himself four life-saving fountains to spring forth clearly, to gush in fitting fashion. A man spoke; he said to me: "The creature, if he lives breaks the downs; if he dies, he binds the living."
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
One of roughly ninety riddles preserved in the Exeter Book; this is one of a further selection translated by R. K. Gordon. The manuscript gives no solutions — the title here follows the translator's own guess (numbering follows Tupper's edition, converted to this archive's Wyatt-based numbering).
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Old English). “Riddle XXXVIII. A Bullock.” Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/44/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Old English). “Riddle XXXVIII. A Bullock.” Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/44/.
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