Three Riddles by Saint Aldhelm

63

When bloody flooding killed the human race
And brand-new oceans put man in his place,
Except for those who carried mankind’s seed,
I, first of creatures, snubbed what law decreed,
While I mocked yielding to the Lord’s command,
For which, I think, a poet would declare,
“The sin revealed on sea was cleansed on land.”
Now I won’t fill my brood with banquet fare
Until I see plumes blacken on their skin.
Remove a letter, I will lack my kin.

64

When God’s seas punished vile abomination
And water cleansed our sin’s contamination,
I would fulfill, first, Father’s proclamation,
Marking with fruit the start of Earth’s salvation.
I always bear a heart, thus, that’s serene
And stay a joyous bird without dark spleen.

81

I always come before clear light with light,
And, brilliant sign of sun, which makes things bright,
I am deflected angling through air.
I love the East, for brilliance starts out where
India’s lands discern an early glow.
O yielding to God’s law was once delightful!
Alas! Proud, I then fell while feeling spiteful,
And so revenge undid a deadly foe,
And thus six friends and I ascend the skies;
Books can reveal them when a reader’s wise.


(Answers: 63, Raven; 64, Dove; 81, Lucifer/Morning Star)