Exeter Book Riddle 83

Exeter Book Riddle 83 (according to the numbering of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records)^[1] is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its interpretation has occasioned a range of scholarly investigations, but it is taken to mean 'Ore/Gold/Metal', with most commentators preferring 'precious metal' or 'gold',^[2] and John D. Niles arguing specifically for the Old English solution ōra, meaning both 'ore' and 'a kind of silver coin'.^[3]

Text and translation

As edited by Williamson, the riddle reads:^[4]

Frōd wæs mīn fromcynn [MS. from cym] [..................] biden in burgum, siþþan bǣles weard [...........] wera līge [MS līfe] bewunden, fȳre gefǣlsad. Nū mē fāh warað eorþan brōþor, se mē ǣrest wearð gumena tō gyrne. Ic ful gearwe gemon hwā mīn fromcynn fruman āgētte eall of earde; ic him yfle ne māt, ac ic [MS. ic on] hæftnȳd hwīlum ārǣre wīde geond wongas. Hæbbe ic wunda fela, middangeardes mægen unlȳtel, ac ic mīþan sceal monna gehwylcum dēgolfulne dōm dȳran cræftes, sīðfæt mīnne. Saga hwæt ic hātte.

My ancestral family was venerable [...], awaited in cities, after the guardian of conflagration [...] of men, surrounded by flame, cleansed by fire. Now the hostile brother of earth guards[/inhabits?] me; he was first to turn into the misfortune of men for me[?]. I remember very clearly who originally wiped all my ancestors/descendants from their homeland; I cannot do him evil, but at times I raise up bond-oppression widely across the lands. I have many wounds, no little power in the world, but I must conceal from each person the secretive judgement of precious craftsmanship, my journey. Say what I am called.

Interpretation

Interpretation has focused on whether the riddle alludes to biblical figures, prominently Tubal-cain,^[5] though allusions to fallen angels have also been envisaged.^[6]

Analogues

The principal analogue noted in past work is Riddle 91 in the collection by Symphosius on 'money':

Terra fui primo, latebris abscondita terrae; Nunc aliud pretium flammae nomenque dederunt, Nec iam terra vocor, licet ex me terra paretur.[7]

Earth-child I was, skulking in ground Till smelt-flames offered a new name and price: No longer earth, I can purchase the earth.[8]

Editions

• Krapp, George Philip and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), p. 236, https://web.archive.org/web/20181206091232/http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009.
• Williamson, Craig (ed.), The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), p. 112 [no. 79].
• Muir, Bernard J. (ed.), The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 2000).
• Foys, Martin and Stoll, Daniel (eds.) Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project (Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019-).

Recordings

• Michael D. C. Drout, 'Riddle 83', Anglo-Saxon Aloud (19 November 2007) (performed from the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records edition).