I am the hard punch and pull of power,
Bold thrusting out, keen coming in,
Serving my lord. I burrow beneath
A belly, tunneling a tight road.
My lord hurries and heaves from behind
With a catch of cloth. Sometimes he drags me
Hot from the hole, sometimes shoves me
Down the snug road. The southern thruster
Urges me on. Say who I am.

So, I found Anonymous's source, and then I found this.  It's old Anglo-Saxon.

a bullet?

Camshaft?

sword?

ooh....sword is really good...

I really like sword.

If nobody has the answer by tomorrow night, I'll put it up to a vote.

(bullet and camshaft aren't correct either)

a sewing needle?

(sword is a great answer)

nope

bow and arrow?

still not

cannonball?

sorry

A carriage?

*chuckles at the mental image of a carriage coming "hot from the hole"*   not that either

something blacksmith/forge related?

a dog?

morning every one sry 4 de bad manners

Now why in hell is that whole message indented like that...

a spear

a branding iron?

i want one of those fire hammers....they sound good.

have a wonderful day i'll see aluh later

oooh... branding iron... I should've thought of that one

Although it doesn't quite fit with being shoved "down the snug road" ... stuff tends to be branded on the surface after all.

maybe not....but you hadn't guessed it yet so i thought i would.

branding is close to  the surface.......it does penetrate the skin....it's just kind of shallow.

@lil' j.....what bad manners are you apologizing for?

A belt?

dog? no

Billows? no

Fire poking-stick thing? It's called a poker.  this was listed as a secondary answer - good enough to fit the riddle, but not the original answer.

Tongs? no

spear? no

branding iron? also a secondary answer.

belt? no

could it possibly be a sewing needle? or a nail?

@monty: i originally thought of forge as well, but continued to get sword.

A die?

I mean a casting die

needle? no. nail? nope.

die? doesn't work.  casting die? not it.

Bagpipe?

Or bellows

dagger?

drill?

I wanted to say drill.... but the riddle is from the olden days, no?

i couldn't think of an old style way of saying it...

*checks the thesaurus*

what about borer?

But that was my point - did they have something like that in those days?

yes......yes they did.

Cool!

haha, for some reason when rereading it, i thought "corset," but i know they did not have those. i also thought belt, rope, sail, or ship.

what about borer?

Or perhaps a gimlet?

Duke Jake?

(I've just realised we have a lot of royalty in here *grin*)

Is it some sort of food or voiding?

helloooooooooooo? duuuuuuuuuuuuuuke??

*got distracted by school*

It is actually a borer, but I like sword better.

The riddle is here: http://www2.kenyon.edu/AngloSaxonRiddles/Riddles/Riddle60.htm

points to Super-King Sir Montague and Anonymous.

i could be wrong but i thought i said borer.....

I'm an idiot.  A borer is a drill.  Sorry SK, but Sir M had it first.

props to SK for finding the right word, but Montague already had it.

I'd already given up by that point and looked it up on the internets, where it listed "a borer or gimlet" as the answer.

I was wondering whether SirM had done the same