Exeter Book Riddle 47 (according to the numbering of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records) is one of the most famous of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is 'book-worm' or 'moth'.
Text
Glossary +form in textheadword formgrammatical informationkey meaningsicicpersonal pronounIcwidecwidemasculine strong nounutterance, sentence, sayingforswealgfor-swelganstrong verbswallow up, consumefrætfretanstrong verbdevour, eat, consume, gnaw awaygiedgieddneuter strong nounpoem, song, report, tale, utterance, sayingglēawraglēawadjectivewise, discerning, prudenthēhēpersonal pronounhemoððemoððefeminine weak nounmothondandconjunctionandnenenegative particlenotsesemasculine demonstrative pronounthatstælgieststæl-giestmasculine strong nounstealing guest, theft-gueststaþolstaðolmasculine strong nounbase, foundation, supportstrangstrangadjectivestrong, powerful, bold, brave, severesumessumindefinite pronouna certain one, someone, somethingswealgswelganstrong verbswallowþāþāadverbthen, whenþāmsedemonstrative pronounthatþætþæt1. neuter demonstrative pronoun 2. adverb1. it, that 2. so thatþeþerelative particlewho, which, thatþēofþēofmasculine strong nouncriminal, thief, robberþrymfæstneþrym-fæstadjectiveglorious, noble, mightyþuhteþyncanweak verbseemþȳþætdemonstrative pronounit, thatþȳstroþēostrufeminine noundarknesswæswesanirregular verbbewerawermasculine strong nounmanwihtewihteadverbat allwordwordneuter strong nounword, utterancewordumwordneuter strong nounword, utterancewrǣtlicuwrǣtlicadjectivewondrous, strange; artistic, ornamentalwyrdwyrdfeminine strong nounevent, fatewyrmwyrmmasculine strong nounworm, maggot
Interpretation
The extensive commentary on this riddle is concisely summarised by Cavell,M. C. Cavell, 'Commentary for Riddle 47', https://theriddleages.bham.ac.uk/riddles/post/commentary-for-exeter-riddle-47/ (23 November 2015). and more fully by Foys.Martin Foys, 'The Undoing of Exeter Book Riddle 47: "Bookmoth" ', in Transitional States: Cultural Change, Tradition and Memory in Medieval England (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2017), working paper at https://www.academia.edu/15399839.
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. Williamson, Craig (ed.), The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977). 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 et al. (eds.) Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project, (Madison, WI: Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, 2019-). Online edition annotated and linked to digital facsimile, with a modern translation.
Recordings
Michael D. C. Drout, 'Riddle 47', performed from the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records edition (29 October 2007).
References