Richard Hamer

An Anglo-Saxon Riddle

My dress is silent when I tread the ground
Or stay at home or stir upon the waters.
Sometimes my trappings and the lofty air
Raise me above the dwelling-place of men,
And then the power of clouds carries me far
Above the people; and my ornaments
Loudly resound, send forth a melody
And clearly sing, when I am not in touch
With earth or water, but a flying spirit.

Battles won and lost, separated lovers, ruins, riddles and religion, in the original Anglo-Saxon with a modern English translation on the facing page. Apart from the riddles, my favourites are the battle poems, with the ravens, eagles and wolves prowling around the edges of the battlefield waiting for their turn to feast on the corpses; I have wanted to read "The Battle of Maldon" for a long time, so I was very pleased to find that it was included.* The answer to the riddle above, is a swan.… (mais)

My favourite thing about this book is that the Old English text is given on the left hand page with a parallel translation on the right. To me, Hamer's renditions into Modern English blank verse do retain something of the spirit of Old English poetry - I think to a great extent because he often uses alliteration within the line. An accessible book even to those with no knowledge of Old English, containing short chapters on what texts remain in that language and on the stress-based metre commonly used for Old English verse.… (mais)