Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/33

33 (k-d 91)

My head is     forged with the hammer, hurt with sharp tools,     smoothed by files. I take in my mouth     what is set before me when girded with rings     I am forced to strike, hard against hard,     pierced from behind, must draw forth     what protects at midnight the heart’s delight     of my own lord. Sometimes I turn     backwards my beak, when, protector of treasure,     my lord wishes to hold the leavings     of those he had driven from life by battle-craft     for his own desire.

10

Min heafod is     homere geþuren searopila wund     sworfen feole oft ic begine     þæt me ongean sticað þōn ic hnitan sceal     hringum gyrded hearde wið heardū     hindan þyrel forð ascufan     þæt mīnes frean mod · ᚹ · freoþað     middel nihtum · hwilum ic under bæc     bregde · nebbe · hyrde þæs hordes     þōn min hlaford wile lafe þicgan     þara þe he of life het wælcræf awrecan     willū sinū

Key. (Cf. also 75 [k-d 44], which is Key with a difference.) “Delight” is represented in the manuscript by W, the rune wyn (‘joy,’ ‘pride’). Ll. 8 ff., “open the door so that the lord can stow the plunder of battle.”