Sunday 18 November 2012

Riddle

Wavering it always flows
Horseless it neighs
Whooping and dinning-down it goes
To storm hell’s ways.

5 comments:

Lucy Claire Hounsom said...

I've been working at this on and off for half an hour and am still none the wiser. How about I ask one? 'What have I got in my pocket?' [Clue: it's not the Ring of Power].

Adam Roberts Project said...

String -- or Nothing!

Adam Roberts Project said...

It's my version of a riddle from the Old Norse poem Alvissmal :

THOR: ‘Tell me this, All-wise—I foresee, dwarf,
that you know all the fates of men—
what the wind is called, which blows so widely,
in each of the worlds.’

ALVISS: ‘Wind it’s called among men, the waverer by the gods,
the mighty Powers say neigher;
whooper the giants, din-journeyer the elves,
in hell they call it stormer.’

'Alviss' is a name that means 'All Wise'.

Lucy Claire Hounsom said...

I will not eat you tonight.

Lucy Claire Hounsom said...

Coincidentally I do hear echoes of Tolkien, or rather predecessors.

As for unravelling the riddle, I can see that my lack of knowledge concerning the 'mighty Powers' and their name for the wind sealed my fate.