Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/44

44 (k-d 31)

Beautifully made     in many ways is this our world,     cunningly adorned. I saw a strange thing     singing in a house; its shape was more wonderful     than aught among men. Its beak was underneath,     its feet and hands birdlike, yet fly it cannot     nor walk at all. Yet eager for movement     it starts to work with various arts.     It often goes around again and again     among noble men. It sits at the banquet-board,     awaits its turn till comes its time     to display its skill among those who are near.     It partakes of nothing that the men there     have for their pleasure. Brave, eager for glory     it remains dumb, yet it has in its foot     beautiful sounds, a glorious gift of song.     Wondrous it seems to me how this very thing     can play with words through its foot beneath     adorned with trappings. It has on its neck     when it guards its treasure, bare, proud with rings,     its two companions, brother and sister.     It’s a great thing surely for a wise singer     to think what this is.

10 20

Is þes middangeard     missenlicum wisum gewlitegad ·     wrættum gefrætwad ic seah sellic þing     singan on ræcede wiht wæs     onwerum on gemonge sio hæfde wæstum     wundorlicran niþer wearð     wæs neb hyre fet ⁊ folme     fugele gelice no hwæþre fleogan mæg     ne fela gongan hwæþre feþegeorn     fremman onginneð gecoren cræftum     cyrreð geneahhe oft ⁊ gelome     eorlum on gemonge siteð æt symble     sæles bideþ · hwonne ær heo cræft hyre     cyþan mote werum on wonge     ne heo þær wiht þigeð þæs þe him æt blisse     beornas habbad deor domes georn     hio dumb wunað hwæþre hyre is on fote     fæger hleoþor wynlicu woðgiefu     wrætlic me þinceð hu seo wiht mæge     wordum lacan þurh fot neoþan     frætwed hyrstum hafað hyre on halse     þōn hio hord warað bær beagum deall     broþor sine mæg mid mægne     micel is to hycgenne wisum woðboran     hwæt wiht sie

It is a Bagpipe, pictured in the likeness of a bird over a man’s shoulder, head down (its beak, the chanter, on which the tune is played) and feet in the air (the two drones, brother and sister, which make the continuous sound). “When it guards its treasure” (l. 19) means the bellows, when inflated.