< Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book < Annotated

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.’

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