a man,
A thief in the dark eat a thoughtful discourse
5 And the strong base it stood on. He stole, but he was not
A whit the wiser when the word had been swallowed.

LX. A Reed

I stood on the strand to the sea-cliffs near,
Hard by the billows. To the home of my birth
Fast was I fixed. Few indeed are there
Of men who have ever at any time
5 Beheld my home in the hard waste-land.
In the brown embrace of the billows and waves
I was locked each dawn. Little I dreamed
That early or late I ever should
With men at the mead-feast mouthless speak forth
10 Words of wisdom. It is a wondrous thing,
And strange to the sight when one sees it first
That the edge of a knife and the active hand
And wit of the earl who wields the blade
Should bring it about that I bear unto thee
15 A secret message, meant for thee only,
Boldly announce it, so that no other man
May speak our secrets or spread them abroad.

1. This riddle occurs in the manuscript just before _The Husband's
Message_, and some editors think that in the riddle we have a proper
beginning for the poem. First is the account of the growth of the
reed, or block of wood, then the account of its voyages, and last the
message conveyed. There is really no way of telling whether the poems
were meant to go together.

EXETER GNOMES

[Critical edition: Blanche Colton Williams, _Gnomic Poetry in
Anglo-Saxon_, New York, 1914.

There are two sets of gnomes or proverbs in Old English. The Exeter
collection, from which these are taken, consists of three groups. The
second group, which contains the justly popular lines about the Frisian
wife, is typical of the whole set.]

Group II

All frost shall freeze, fire consume wood,
Earth grow its fruits. Ice shall bridge water,
Which shall carry its cover and cunningly lock
75 The herbs of earth. One only shall loose
The fetter of frost, the Father Almighty.
Winter shall away, the weather be fair,
The sun hot in summer. The sea shall be restless.
The deep way of death is the darkest of secrets.
80 Holly flames on the fire. Afar shall be scattered