Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/4

4 (k-d 39)

The books tell us     that this thing has been among mankind     through many ages clear and manifest.     A special power it has much greater     than any men know. It wishes to seek     all living beings one by one;     then goes its way; no second night     in the same place; but homeless roves     for ever and aye, the path of exile.     It is none the poorer. It has neither foot nor hand,     nor touches the ground, nor two eyes nor mouth     nor speaks with men. It has no mind,     but the books say it is quite the poorest     of all creatures that were ever begotten     according to nature.   It has no soul nor life,     but makes its way far and wide     through this wonderful world It has no blood, no bone,     yet gives aid and comfort to many men     the wide world over. It never reached to heaven,     it may not to hell, but forever it must     live by the teachings of the King of Glory.     Long is it to relate how its way of life     will go thereafter fate’s crooked ways.                                   This is a marvelous thing to say:     it is all true that ever with words     is told about it. It has no limit.     It lives nevertheless. If you can straightway     rede this riddle with true words,     tell what its name is.

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Gewritu secgað     þæt seo wiht sy mid moncynne     miclum ticlum sweotol ⁊ gesyne     sundorcræft hafa&eth maram micle     þōn hit men witen heo wile gesecan     sundor æghwylcne feorhberendra;     gewiteð eft feran onweg · Ne bið hio næfre     niht þær oþre ac hio sceal wideferh     wreccan laste hamleas hweorfan     no þy heanre biþ · Ne hafað hio fot ne folm     ne æfre foldan hran ne eagene     ægþer twega ne muð hafað     ne wiþ monnum spræc ne gewit hafað     ac gewritu secgað þæt seo sy earmost     ealra wihta þara þe æfter gecyndum     cenned wære · Ne hafað hio sawle ne feorh     ac hio siþas sceal geond þas wundorworuld     wide dreogan · ne hafaþ hio blod ne ban     hwæþre bearnum wearð geond þisne middangeard     mongum to frofre næfre hio heofonum hran     ne to helle mot · ac hio sceal wideferh     wuldor cyninge larum lifgan     long is to secganne hu hyre ealdorgesceaft     æfter gongeð woh wyrda gesceapu ·                                    þæt wrætlic þing to gesecganne     soð is æghwylc þara þe ymb þas wiht     wordum becneð ne hafað he hænig lim     leofaþ efne seþeah gif þu mæge reselan     recene gesecgan soþum wordum     saga hwæt hio hatte · :⁊

The usual answer is Moon and Day. The paradoxes remind one of 11 (k-d 40), with which it has some metrical and stylistic similarities. Both may be by the same author. Mrs. von Erhardt-Siebold, who regards it as “one of the finest” and praises its “ingenious and fascinating poetry,” offers the tempting solution (PMLA lxi [1946], 910–15) of Hypostatized Death, in the manner of Plato. She divides it into seven parts (as printed above): death is not real, not abstract; it comes privately and only once; it is a “suprasensible entity”; it is not really lifeless: it has eternal life; this is not conjecture, but fact; you first explain it and then name it.