Riddle 7
translation by Yvonne
Rathbone
©2002
Old English In Translation
AS
Rune Poem
Riddle
7
Riddle
12
Riddle
25
Riddle
47
My clothing is still,
when I traverse the earth,
or leave a house,
or stir up the seas.
This lofty air recedes me
with my trappings
beyond the heroes bend,
then widely,
the strength of the clouds
hides me from folk.
Sounding loud and singing bright,
they sing of my armour,
yet I nearby am not
to water and earth
to sailor's breath.
(A note on transcription of pesky OE letters: The above poem is rendered as a jpeg in order to show the OE letters, thorn and eth. That option isn't feasible for the following essay and thus I have switched to using 'th' for both.)
Some Observations
A common answer given for this riddle is "Swan".(1)
The symbolism in this riddle has some interesting connections
with that of the Swan in Celtic cultures. (Don't mix up the Anglo-Saxons
with the Celts. These are different peoples. But in some places,
they lived in close proximity to each other leading to the possibility
of cross-fertilization.)
To the Celts, the swan was related to music. In the above riddle there are several lines devoted to singing. The swan also commanded the three elements mentioned in the riddle: air (hea lyft, wolcna strengu), water (wado drefe, flode), and earth (hrusan trede, foldan). And the swan was also linked to travel between this world and the Otherworld. (2) The final word of the riddle, "gæst" means both "guest" and "spirit,soul,ghost." (3)
A bit further afield than the Celts, in Serbian folklore, the swan was conected to the vile (sg. vila, remember them from the fourth Harry Potter book?).(4) The vile were woodland nymphs which seems a bit of a stretch, but one word in the poem might indicate a connection. "Hryste" is listed in Clark Hall as meaning either jewels or "hillock or wooded immenence."
Notes
1) Cooper, J. "Symbolic & Mythological Animals."
London: Aquarian/Thorson, 1992.
2) Chevalier, J. and Alain Gheerbrant. "The Penguin Dictionary
of Symbols." London: Penguin Books, 1994.
3) Clark Hall, J. "A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary."
Fourth Ed. 1960. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
4) Raffel, B. "Poems From The Old English. " University
of Nebraska Press, 1964.