Arts & Sciences
Riddle LXXXV. A One-Eyed Seller of Garlic
Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Everyman’s Library, 1926) · From Exeter Book Riddles (selection)
A creature came where many men, wise in mind, were sitting in the meeting-place; it had one eye and two ears and two feet, twelve hundred heads, back and belly and two hands, arms and shoulders, one neck and two sides. Say what is my name.
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). ASPR 86.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Old English). “Riddle LXXXV. A One-Eyed Seller of Garlic.” Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/50/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Old English). “Riddle LXXXV. A One-Eyed Seller of Garlic.” Translated by R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/50/.
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