Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book/Annotated/76

76 (k-d 45)

I have heard of something     wax in a corner, swell and pop,     lift up the covers. A proud-minded woman     seized with her hands that boneless thing,     a prince’s daughter; covered with her dress     the swelling thing.

Ic on wincle gefrægn     weax nathwæt þindan ⁊ þunian     þecene hebban on þæt banlease     bryd grapode hygewlonc hondum     hrægle þeahte þrindende þing     þeodnes dohtor.

The answer is Dough. The first line contains a primitive pun (Wyatt); the scribe wrote weax, the noun, ‘wax,’ for weaxan, the infinitive, ‘to increase.’