Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/66

66 (k-d 74)

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.

Ic wæs fæmne geong     feax hār cwene ⁊ ænlic rinc     on ane tid fleah mid fuglum     ⁊ on flode swom deaf under yþe     dead mid fiscum ⁊ on foldan stop     hæfde forð cwicu

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 (Medium Ævum xv [1946], 48–54), comparing Frag. 117 of Empedocles:

Once I was a young man, maiden,
plant, bird, and mute fish cast ashore.

This, of course, is not a riddle, but an expression of cyclic metamorphosis. Just how an Anglo-Saxon came to know Empedocles is not clear.