Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/18

18 (k-d 11)

My garment is darkish.     Bright decorations, red and radiant,     I have on my raiment. I mislead the stupid     and stimulate the foolish toward unwise ways.     Others I restrain from profitable paths.     But I know not at all that they, maddened,     robbed of their senses, astray in their actions     —that they praise to all men my wicked ways.     Woe to them then when the Most High holds out     his dearest of gifts if they do not desist     first from their folly.

10

Hrægl is min hasofag     hyrste beorhte reade ⁊ scire     on reafe ic dysge dwelle     ⁊ dole hwette unrædsiþas     oþrum styre nyttre fore     ic þæs nowiht wat ꝥ heo swa gemædde     mode bestolene dæde gedwolene     deoraþ mine wōn wisan gehwam     wā him þæs þeawes siþþan heah bringað     horda deorast gif hi unrædes     ær ne geswicaþ

The solution is apparently Wine and a reproof of its excesses. Cf. 59 (k-d 27), Mead, and 60 (k-d 28), John Barleycorn. Ll. 5 ff. “I know not that…” seem to mean “it is no affair of mine that….” L. 9 has given trouble; probably “Woe to them when brought to the Last Judgment.” Or “dearest of gifts” may mean the gift of salvation.