# Exeter Book Riddle 47

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

| Original | Formal equivalence | Translation |
| Moððe word fræt.   Mē þæt þuhte wrǣtlicu wyrd,   þā ic þæt wundor gefrægn, þæt se wyrm forswealg   wera gied sumes, þēof in þȳstro,   þrymfæstne cwide ond þæs strangan staþol.   Stælgiest ne wæs wihte þȳ glēawra,   þe hē þām wordum swealg. | A moth ate words.   To me that seemed a fantastical event,   when I found that wonder out, that a worm swallowed   the poem of a some person, a thief in darkness,   a glorious statement and its strong foundation.   The thieving stranger was not a whit more wise   that he swallowed those words. | A moth ate words. I thought that was a marvelous fate, that the worm, a thief in the dark, should eat a man's words — a brilliant statement, its foundation strong. Not a whit the wiser was he for having fattened himself on those words. |

## Glossary

| form in text | headword form | grammatical information | key meanings |
| ic | ic | personal pronoun | I |
| cwide | cwide | masculine strong noun | utterance, sentence, saying |
| forswealg | for-swelgan | strong verb | swallow up, consume |
| fræt | fretan | strong verb | devour, eat, consume, gnaw away |
| gied | giedd | neuter strong noun | poem, song, report, tale, utterance, saying |
| glēawra | glēaw | adjective | wise, discerning, prudent |
| hē | hē | personal pronoun | he |
| moððe | moððe | feminine weak noun | moth |
| ond | and | conjunction | and |
| ne | ne | negative particle | not |
| se | se | masculine demonstrative pronoun | that |
| stælgiest | stæl-giest | masculine strong noun | stealing guest, theft-guest |
| staþol | staðol | masculine strong noun | base, foundation, support |
| strang | strang | adjective | strong, powerful, bold, brave, severe |
| sumes | sum | indefinite pronoun | a certain one, someone, something |
| swealg | swelgan | strong verb | swallow |
| þā | þā | adverb | then, when |
| þām | se | demonstrative pronoun | that |
| þæt | þæt | 1. neuter demonstrative pronoun 2. adverb | 1. it, that 2. so that |
| þe | þe | relative particle | who, which, that |
| þēof | þēof | masculine strong noun | criminal, thief, robber |
| þrymfæstne | þrym-fæst | adjective | glorious, noble, mighty |
| þuhte | þyncan | weak verb | seem |
| þȳ | þæt | demonstrative pronoun | it, that |
| þȳstro | þēostru | feminine noun | darkness |
| wæs | wesan | irregular verb | be |
| wera | wer | masculine strong noun | man |
| wihte | wihte | adverb | at all |
| word | word | neuter strong noun | word, utterance |
| wordum | word | neuter strong noun | word, utterance |
| wrǣtlicu | wrǣtlic | adjective | wondrous, strange; artistic, ornamental |
| wyrd | wyrd | feminine strong noun | event, fate |
| wyrm | wyrm | masculine strong noun | worm, maggot |

## Interpretation

The extensive commentary on this riddle is concisely summarised by Cavell, and more fully by Foys.

## 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).