Loud were they, lo loud, as over the lea they rode; 5 Resolute they were when they rode over the land. Protect thyself that thy trouble become cured and healed. Out, little stick, if it still is I stood under the linden, under the light shield, Where the mighty women their magic prepared, 10 And they sent their spears spinning and whistling. But I will send them a spear in return, Unerringly aim an arrow against them. Out, little stick, if it still is within! There sat a smith and a small knife forged 15 . . . . . . . sharply with a stroke of iron. Out little stick if it still is within! Six smiths sat and worked their war-spears. Out, spear! be not in, spear! If it still is there, the stick of iron, 20 The work of the witches, away it shall melt. If thou wert shot in the skin, or sore wounded in the flesh, If in the blood thou wert shot, or in the bone thou wert shot, If in the joint thou wert shot, there will be no jeopardy to your life. If some deity shot it, or some devil shot it, 25 Or if some witch has shot it, now I am willing to help thee. This is a remedy for a deity's shot; this is a remedy for a devil's shot; This is a remedy for a witch's shot. I am willing to help thee. Flee there into the forests . . . . . . . Be thou wholly healed. Thy help be from God. _30_ _Then take the knife and put it into the liquid._ 1. The sudden stitch in the side (or rheumatic pain) is here thought of as coming from the arrows shot by the "mighty women"--the witches. 21-28. These irregular lines are imitated from the original. RIDDLES [Critical editions: Wyatt, Tupper, and Trautmann. Wyatt (Boston, 1912, Belles Lettres edition) used as a basis for these translations. His numbering is always one lower than the other editions, since he rejects one riddle. Date: Probably eighth century for most of them. For translations of other riddles than those here given see Brooke, _English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest_, Pancoast and Spaeth, _Early English Poems_, and Cook and Tinker, _Selections from Old English Poetry_. There is no proof as to the authorship. There were probably one hundred of them in the original collection though only about ninety are left. Many of them are translations from the Latin. Some are true folk-riddles and some are learned.