Stylus

Exeter Riddle #51

Four wights I saw    on strange journey together:

Swart to the sight   was the spoor they made,

Their steps very black.    ‘Twas swift in motion,

Faster than birds    it floated through air,

Dived under the wave.    Worked unresting

The striving warrior,     who showed the way

Over fine-plated gold   to all the four.[1]

We can see the four creatures as three fingers that grip the stylus and the stylus itself, but there are other suggestions for this riddle, such as a horse and cart.[2] Here the stylus takes on a person of its own, emphasizing the intellectual and person-like quality of the writing instrument that transmits the ideas of the user through words. Writing is a journey, and the fingers and stylus work vigorously.  

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[1] Abbott, H. H. The Riddles of the Exeter Book. Cambridge: Golden Head P., 1968, 31.

[2] Ibid., 53