Riddle

Submitted by Caleb on Mon, 03/16/2020 - 20:06

This is based on an old Anglo-Saxon Riddle:

Strange creature, mounted on the swelling sea,
Came, wondrous, calling out to ship and crew,
With hollow groans and shattering laughter free.
Too slow for battle-rush, yet strong to do
Cruel ravage as it strikes the wooden-wall,
And oars-men underneath the north sea fall.

Author's age when written
29
Genre
Poetry

Comments

Caleb

Fri, 03/20/2020 - 05:48

Permalink

Yes, it's an iceberg (which breaks off from a glacier.) In the original riddle it has these lines about the water ice relationship.

“Dearest of women is indeed my mother;
she is my daughter grown big and strong."

Water turns to ice, ice dissolves into water -- presumably the ocean big and strong.

And he was just wondering, for he was a severe critic of his own work, whether that last line couldn't be polished up a bit...
~P.G. Wodehouse