Aldhelm's Stork Riddle

By Soloneying - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49725112

The transcription reads:

Candida forma nitens necnon et furua nigrescens
est mihi, dum uaria conponor imagine pennae;
Uoce carens tremula nam faxo crepacula rostro.
Quamuis squamigeros discerpam dira colobros,
Non mea letiferis turgescunt membra uenenis;
sic teneros pullos prolemque nutrire suesco
Carne venenata tetroque cruore draconum.

Shining white in appearance and turning black

as I am fashioned in varied plumage;

I have no trilling voice, for with my beak I make clattering sounds.

Although I tear apart dreadful scaly snakes

no deadly venom swells my veins;

thus, I am accustomed to feed my tender chicks and offspring

with poisoned flesh and the foul blood of dragons.

Aldhelm is describing the stork and its feathers, and how it makes an unpleasant noise instead of having the typical singing voice of a bird. He also highlights how storks eat snakes despite their poison. By doing so he makes the stork sound almost like a mythical being for being able to survive snake poison and even feed its young with it.

To the left of the first word of the riddle, there is a small heading that says “De cocinia”, a misspelling for “De ciconia”, which translates to "On the stork", which gives away the solution of the riddle.

Sources:

Translation with the help of Logeion and ChatGPT, adapted from Pitman, James Hall. (1925). “The Riddles of Aldhelm: Text and Verse Translation With Notes.” Yale University Press.