Key

Exeter Riddle #89

 This head of mine    with a hammer is forged,               Reft with sharp tool    and rubbed very smooth.                Often I gape    at what ‘gainst me is fixed,                When I must strike     surrounded with rings,                Hard against hard,    bored through from behind,            And shove forward    what stands over                                At midnight my Lord’s    mind-easing wealth.               At times with my neb    I backward turn                       The keeper of treasure,    when my lord wishes                 To take the heritage     of those he had slain                By deadly power    for his own pleasure. [1]

This metaphor compares a key to a lord’s servant. What else could a key symbolize? 

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Abbott, H. H. The Riddles of the Exeter Book. Cambridge: Golden Head P., 1968. Page 46.