Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/26

26 (k-d 38)

I saw the creature,     of the arms-bearing kind, greedy for youth’s joys.     As its due it let four nourishing fountains,     brightly shining, shoot forth noisily,     as is right and proper. Then spake a man,     who said to me: “The creature, if it lives,     will break up the hillside; if rent apart,     will bind the living.”

Ic þa wiht geseah     wæpned cynnes · geoguð myrþe grædig     him on gafol forlet ferðfriþende     feower wellan scire sceotan     on gesceap þeotan mon maþelade     se þe me gesægde seo wiht gif hio gedygeð     duna briceð gif he tobirsteð     bindeð cwice

Bull calf. See pp. xiv f. above. “Arms-bearing” means “masculine.”