Thomas Sudell
Being a translation of an Old English (Anglo-Saxon) riddle. The tenth-century Exeter Book manuscript in which this metrical riddle is preserved does not record a solution. The solution generally accepted among modern scholars may be found below.
Four strange companions I beheld. Their track
was sable, and their footsteps wondrous black.
Swift was their pace; yet swifter still it grew
as, visiting the realm of birds, they flew
through open air to plunge beneath the wave.
With unremitting industry then strave
the diligent retainer who once more
began to steer the passage of those four
collateral travellers as they made their way
among the treasures that before them lay.
[Translated from Old English by Thomas Sudell]
PROPOSED SOLUTION TO RIDDLE 51
A quill pen held between a thumb and two fingers. The black footsteps are the ink that they leave behind. Lines 3-5 refer to the scribe lifting his quill from the page in order to refill it at his ink pot. He then resumes his writing, guiding the quill among the splendours that adorn his illustrated manuscript.
Thomas Sudell is a graduate of Oxford University (2015) where he studied English with a speciality in Old English. His translation of the Old English poem ‘Maxims II’ has recently appeared in Issue 32 of Littoral Magazine (October, 2024).
Briefly Write 