Whence shall he, who sells what he has, procure what he has not?This is less teasing than the Old English riddle: it contains more clues and is, in any case, entitled with the answer, 'One-Eyed Seller of Garlic.' Since the Old English riddle contains the same paradox, albeit in more bewildering form, this same answer has been universally (and gratefully) accepted by modern editors and commentators ever since the discovery of the analogy by Dietrich.'Wilcox is surely right, though, that 'nevertheless, riddle 86 clearly cheats on the conventions of a riddle.
Now may you see what you scarcely may believe: one eye within, but many thousand heads. Symphosius's enigma 95, Luscus alium vendens, can be translated as follows: Symphosius composed in the fifth century a sequence of one hundred three-line Latin enigmata, three of which serve as sources for the Exeter Book riddles. The survival of a partly analogous Latin riddle has made possible a solution to the puzzle posed in riddle 86. Riddle 86 in the Exeter Book is unusually difficult to solve.
