Anglo-Saxon riddles
Anglo-Saxon riddles are part of Anglo-Saxon literature. The riddle was a major, prestigious literary genre in Anglo-Saxon England, and riddles were written both in Latin and Old English verse. The most famous Anglo-Saxon riddles are in Old English and found in the tenth-century Exeter Book, while the pre-eminent Anglo-Saxon composer of Latin riddles was the seventh- to eighth-century scholar Aldhelm.
![](../I/Exeter_Riddle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_375937.jpg.webp)
Surviving riddles range from theological and scholarly to comical and obscene and attempt to provide new perspectives and viewpoints in describing the world. Some at least were probably meant to be performed rather than merely read to oneself and give us a glimpse into the life and culture of the era.[1]
The Old English riddles have been much more studied than the Latin ones, but recent work has argued that the two groups need to be understood together as 'a vigorous, common tradition of Old English and Anglo-Latin enigmatography'.[2] Much past work on the Old English riddles has focused on finding and debating solutions,[3] but a new wave of work has started using riddles as a way to study Anglo-Saxon world-views through the critical approaches of eco-criticism.[4]
Anglo-Latin enigmata
The earliest attested riddles in Anglo-Saxon England are in Latin, where they are known as enigmata ('enigmas') and formed a thriving literary genre which is likely to have inspired the later collection of vernacular riddles in the Exeter Book.[5] Unlike the Exeter Book riddles, the Anglo-Saxon enigmata are presented in manuscripts with their solutions as their title, and seldom close with a challenge to the reader to guess their solution.[6]
Aldhelm
Apparently inspired by the hundred Aenigmata of Symphosius, another, possibly north-Italian collection of metrical Latin riddles known today as the Bern Riddles, along with Byzantine literary riddling, the Anglo-Saxon aristocrat, scholar, abbot and bishop Aldhelm composed his own collection of a hundred (hexa)metrical enigmata.[7] He included it in his Epistola ad Acircium, a study of poetry dedicated to one Acircius, understood to be King Aldfrith of Northumbria, and therefore presumably written during his reign (685-704/5); Aldhelm records that his riddles were composed early in his career 'as scholarly illustrations of the principles of Latin versification', and may have been the work where he established his poetic skill in Latin.[6] The letter consists of three treatises:
- De septenario, treatise on the number seven in arithmology.
- De metris, treatise on metre, including the Enigmata.
- De pedum regulis, didactive treatise on metrical feet, such as iambs and spondees.
Many were directly inspired by Symphosius's, but overall, Aldhelm's collection is quite different in tone and purpose: as well as being an exposition of Latin poetic metres, diction, and techniques, it seems to be intended as an exploration of the wonders of God's creation.[8] The riddles generally become more metrically and linguistically complex as the collection proceeds. The first eight riddles deal with cosmology. Riddles 9-82 are more heterogeneous, covering a wide variety of animals, plants, artefacts, materials and phenomena, but can be seen to establish purposeful contrasts (for example between the light of a candle in Enigma 52 and that of the Great Bear in 53) or sequences (for example the animals of Enigmata 34-39: locust, screech-owl, midge, crab, pond-skater, lion). Riddles 81-99 seem all to concern monsters and wonders. Finally, the long hundredth riddle is "Creatura", the whole of Creation.[9] His most prominent themes were 'the natural world, daily life, church furniture, and the classroom. A bookish quality is evident in many of the other topics addressed, which would certainly have been outside the daily experience of Anglo-Saxon England'.[6] Aldhelm may have known the passage through his teacher Hadrian.[10]
Perhaps because of its use in Anglo-Saxon education, Aldhelm's collection inspired several more Anglo-Latin riddle collections: not long after Aldhelm composed his enigmata, Saint Boniface composed his own, in the form of 'a series of ten poems on the Vices and ten on the Virtues produced for the moral instruction of an unnamed female correspondent', influenced greatly by Aldhelm and containing many references to works of Vergil (the Aeneid, the Georgics, and the Eclogues).[6]
Example
An example of an enigma by Aldhelm is his Elleborus, by which word Aldhelm understood not the hellebore, but woody nightshade.[11] It is number 98 in his collection:
Latin original | Literal translation | Literary translation |
---|---|---|
Ostriger en arvo vernabam frondibus hirtis Conquilio similis: sic cocci murice rubro Purpureus stillat sanguis de palmite guttis. Exuvias vitae mandenti tollere nolo Mitia nec penitus spoliabunt mente venena; Sed tamen insanum vexat dementia cordis Dum rotat in giro vecors vertigine membra.[12] |
|
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List of Aldhelm's enigmata
1. terra/earth, 2. ventus/wind, 3. nubes/cloud, 4. natura/nature, 5. iris/rainbow, 6. luna/moon, 7. fatum/fate, 8. Pliades/Pleiades, 9. adamas/diamond, 10. molosus/mastiff, 11. poalum/bellows, 12. bombix/silkworm, 13. barbita/organ, 14. pavo/peacock, 15. salamandra/salamander, 16. luligo/flying fish, 17. perna/bivalve mollusc (pinna nobilis), 18. myrmicoleon/ant-lion, 19. salis/salt, 20. apis/bee, 21. lima/file, 22. acalantida/nightingale, 23. trutina/scales, 24. dracontia/dragon-stone, 25. magnes ferrifer/lodestone, 26. gallus/rooster, 27. coticula/whetstone, 28. Minotaurus/Minotaur, 29. aqua/water, 30. elementum/alphabet, 31. ciconia/stork, 32. pugillares/writing tablets, 33. lorica/armour, 34. locusta/locust, 35. nycticorax/night-raven, 36. scnifes/midge, 37. cancer/crab, 38. tippula/pond strider, 39. leo/lion, 40. piper/pepper, 41. pulvillus/pillow, 42. strutio/ostrich, 43. sanguisuga/leech, 44. ignis/fire, 45. fusum/sprindle, 46. urtica/nettle, 47. hirundo/swallow, 48. vertico poli/sphere of the heavens, 49. lebes/cauldron, 50. myrifyllon/milfoil (yarrow), 51. eliotropus/heliotrope, 52. candela, 53. Arcturus/Arcturus, 54. cocuma duplex/double boiler, 55. crismal/chrismal, 56. castor/beaver, 57. aquila/eagle, 58. vesper sidus/evening star, 59. penna/pen, 60. monocerus/unicorn, 61. pugio/dagger, 62. famfaluca/bubble, 63. corbus/raven, 64. columba/dove, 65. muriceps/mouser, 66. mola/mill, 67. cribellus/sieve, 68. salpix/trumpet, 69. taxus/yew, 70. tortella/loaf of bread, 71. piscis/fish, 72. colosus/colossus, 73. fons/spring, 74. fundibalum/sling, 75. crabro/hornet, 76. melarius/apple tree, 77. ficulnea/fig tree, 78. cupa vinaria/wine cask, 79. sol et luna/sun and moon, 80. calix vitreus/glass cup, 81. Lucifer/morning star, 82. mustela/weasel, 83. iuvencus/steer, 84. scrofa praegnans/pregnant sow, 85. caecus natus/man born blind, 86. aries/ram, 87. clipeus/shield, 88. basiliscus/serpent, 89. arca libraria/bookcase, 90. puerpera geminas enixa/woman bearing twins, 91. palma/palm, 92. farus editissima/tall lighthouse, 93. scintilla/spark, 94. ebulus/dwarf elder, 95. Scilla/Scylla, 96. elefans/elephant, 97. nox/night, 98. elleborus/hellebore, 99. camellus/camel, 100. Creatura/Creation.[15]
Other Anglo-Latin riddlers
Writing in the early eighth century, the Mercian priest and Archbishop of Canterbury, Tatwine, composed forty acrostic riddles. These survive in two manuscripts, written alongside the riddles of Eusebius: the early 11th century London, British Library, Royal 12.Cxxiii (fols. 121v-7r) and the mid 11th century Cambridge, University Library, Gg.5.35 (fols. 374v-77v).[16] It is almost certain that Tatwine had read the riddles of Aldhelm;[17] Frederick Tupper believed that this influence was minimal,[18] but subsequent scholars have argued that Tatwine's riddles owed a substantial debt to those of Aldhelm.[19][20][21] According to Mercedes Salvador-Bello, these riddles are placed in a carefully structured sequence: 1-3 and 21-26 on theology (e.g. 2, faith, hope, and charity), 4-14 on objects associated with ecclesiastical life (e.g. 7, a bell), 15-20 on wonders and monsters (e.g. 16, prepositions with two cases), 27-39 on tools and related natural phenomena (e.g. 28, an anvil, and 33, fire), with a final piece on the sun's rays.[22][23][24] An example of Tatwine's work is enigma 11, on the needle:[25]:178
Latin original | English translation |
---|---|
Torrens me genuit fornax de uiscere flammae,
Condi<t>or inualido et finxit me corpore luscam; Sed constat nullum iam sine me uiuere posse. Est mirum dictu, cludam ni lumina uultus, Condere non artis penitus molimina possum. |
Brought forth in the fiery womb of a blazing furnace,
my maker formed me one-eyed and frail; yet surely none could ever live without me. Strange to say, unless my eye is blinded, my skill produces not the smallest piece of work. |
Tatwine's collection was then expanded to 100 by someone writing under the name Eusebius. The author has traditionally been identified as Hwætberht, the Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory, based on Bede's identification of Hwætberht with the cognomen of 'Eusebius' in his Commentary on I Samuel.[26][27] However, the identification with Hwætberht has been questioned by several scholars, including Emily V Thornbury, who has suggested that a Kentish author might be likely.[28] Eusebius added a further sixty enigmata, of which 1-4 are on the chain of being, from God to Man, 5-11 mostly on cosmological phenomena, 12-29 a miscellaneous collection mostly of objects, 30-36 mostly on writing, and 37-60 on animals.[29] Many are based on the encyclopaedic writing of Isidore of Seville.[6] An example of Eusebius's work is enigma 42, on the dragon:[30]:252
Latin original | English translation |
---|---|
Horridus horriferas speluncae cumbo latebras,
Concitus aethereis uolitans miscebor et auris, Cristatusque uolans pulcher turbabitur aether. Corpore uipereas monstra uel cetera turmas Reptile sum superans gestantia pondus inorme. Inmanisque ferus preparuo pascitur ore, Atque per angustas assumunt uiscera uenas Aethereum flatum; nec dentibus austera uirtus Est mihi, sed mea uim uiolentem cauda tenebit. |
A horrid beast, I lie in the ghastly gloom of a cavern,
aroused, I fly fluttering into the lofty air and fly with my crest displayed, the fair air whirling. My crawling body is stronger than that of all snakes or any monsters dragging their excessive weights. Though uncouth and savage, I feed through a tiny mouth, my chest through narrow pipes is filled with breath, and not to my teeth do I owe my sinister power, nay, the seat of my impetuous strength is in my tail. |
Meanwhile, Boniface composed a sequence of ten riddles on the virtues and another of ten on the vices.[31]
The Lorsch riddles are also thought to have been composed in Anglo-Saxon England.[32][33]
List of Tatwine's riddles
1. de philosophia/philosophy; 2. de spe, fide (et) caritate; hope, faith (and) charity; 3. de historia et sensu et morali et allegoria/historical, spiritual, moral, and allegorical sense; 4. de litteris/letters; 5. de membrano/parchment; 6. de penna/pen; 7. de tinti(n)no/bell; 8. de ara/altar; 9. de cruce Xristi/Christ's cross; 10. de recitabulo/lectern; 11. de acu/needle; 12. de patena/paten; 13. de acu pictili/embroidery needle; 14. de caritate/love; 15. de niue, grandine et glacie/snow, hail and ice; 16. de pr(a)epositione utriusque casus/prepositions with two cases; 17. de sciuro/squirrel; 18. de oculis/eyes; 19. de strabis oculis/squinting eyes; 20. de lusco/the one-eyed; 21. de malo/evil; 22. de Adam/Adam; 23. de trina morte/threefold death; 24. de humilitate/humility; 25. de superbia/pride; 26. de quinque sensibus/the five senses; 27. de forcipe/a pair of tongs; 28. de incude/anvil; 29. de mensa/table; 30. de ense et uagina/sword and sheath; 31. de scintilla/spark; 32. de sagitta/arrow; 33. de igne/fire; 34. de faretra/quiver; 35. de pru(i)na/ember; 36. de uentilabro/winnowing fork; 37. de seminante/sower; 38. de carbone/charcoal; 39. de coticulo/whetstone; 40. de radiis solis/rays of the sun.[25]
List of Eusebius's riddles
1. de Deo/God; 2. de angelo/angel; 3. de demone/fallen angel; 4. de homine/man; 5. de caelo/heaven; 6. de terra/earth; 7. de littera/letters; 8. de uento et igne/wind and fire; 9. de alpha/alpha; 10. de sole/sun; 11. de luna/moon; 12. de boue/bullock; 13. de uacca/cow; 14. de x littera/the letter x; 15. de igne et aqua/fire and water; 16. de p<h>lasca/flask; 17. de cruce/cross; 18. de iniquitate et iustitia/iniquity and justice; 19. de v littera/the letter u; 20. de domo/house; 21. de terra et mare/land and sea; 22. de sermone/speech; 23. de <a>equore/sea; 24. de morte et uita/death and life; 25. de animo/heart; 26. de die bissextile/bissextile day; 27. de humilitate et superbia/humility and pride; 28. de candela/candle; 29. de <a>etate et saltu/cycle and moon's leap; 30. de atramentorio/ink-horn; 31. de cera/wax; 32. de membrano/parchment-sheets; 33. de scetha/book-wallet; 34. de flumine/river; 35. de penna/quill; 36. de gladio/sword; 37. de uitulo/calf; 38. de pullo/chicken; 39. de i littera/the letter i; 40. de pisce/fish; 41. de chelidro serpente/water-serpent; 42. de dracone/dragon; 43. de tigri bestia/tiger; 44. de pant[h]era/panther; 45. de cameleone/camelopard (chameleon); 46. de leopardo/leopard; 47. de scitali serpente/piebald serpent; 48. de die et nocte/day and night; 49. de anfibina serpente/two-headed serpent; 50. de saura lacerto/lizard; 51. de scorpione/scorpion; 52. de cymera/chimera; 53. de y<ppo>potamo pisce/hippopotamus; 54. de oc<h>enao pisce/ship-retaining fish; 55. de turpedo pisce/torpedo fish; 56. de ciconia aui/stork; 57. de strutione/ostrich; 58. de noctua/owlet; 59. de psi<t>taco/parrot; 60. de bubone/horned owl.[30]
The Exeter Book riddles
The Exeter Book contains secular and religious poems and other writings, along with a collection of around 94 riddles (scholars debate precisely how many there are because divisions between poems are not always clear). There is speculation that there may once have been, or have been intended to be, 100 riddles in the book, since this would match the Latin collections discussed above. The riddles are all written in alliterative verse, and frequently end with an injunction to 'say what I am called', suggesting that they were indeed recited as verbal entertainment; yet they clearly have diverse origins.[1][34] The Exeter Book riddles can be situated within a wider tradition of 'speaking objects' in Anglo-Saxon culture and have much in common with poems such as The Dream of the Rood and The Husband's Message and with artefacts such as the Alfred Jewel or the Brussels Cross, which endow inanimate things with first-person voices.[35]
The Exeter Book riddles are varied in theme, but they are all used to engage and challenge the readers mentally. By representing the familiar, material world from an oblique angle, many not only draw on but also complicate or challenge social norms such as martial masculinity, patriarchal attitudes to women, lords' dominance over their servants, and humans' over animals.[36] Thirteen, for example, have as their solution an implement, which speaks of itself through the riddle as a servant to its lord; but these sometimes also suggest the power of the servant to define the master.[37] Unlike the Latin Anglo-Saxon riddles, the Old English ones tend not to rely on intellectual obscurity to make the riddle more difficult for the reader,[1] rather focusing on describing processes of manufacture and transformation. The reader must be observant to any double meanings or "hinge words" in order to discover the answer to the riddle.[34][38] The search for answers to the riddles has been addressed at length by Patrick J. Murphy, focusing on thought patterns of the period, but there is still no unanimous agreement on some of them.[39] Some of the riddles are translated from Latin, such as the Leiden Riddle (which is preserved both outside and within the Exeter Book); others seem to have come directly from vernacular tradition.
The Anglo Saxon riddles are notable for their use of compound nouns and adjectives. These word combinations became what could be considered riddles within the riddle itself. They offered a new perspective and would poetically personify their subject.[40]
The majority of the riddles have religious themes and answers. Some of the religious contexts within the riddles are "manuscript book (or Bible)," "soul and body," "fish and river" (fish are often used to symbolize Christ).[1] The riddles also were written about common objects, and even animals were used as inspiration for some of the riddles. One example of a typical, religious riddle is Riddle 41, which describes the soul and body:
- A noble guest of great lineage dwells
- In the house of man. Grim hunger
- Cannot harm him, nor feverish thirst,
- Nor age, nor illness. If the servant
- Of the guest who rules, serves well
- On the journey, they will find together
- Bliss and well-being, a feast of fate;
- If the slave will not as a brother be ruled
- By a lord he should fear and follow
- Then both will suffer and sire a family
- Of sorrows when, springing from the world,
- They leave the bright bosom of one kinswoman,
- Mother and sister, who nourished them.
- Let the man who knows noble words
- Say what the guest and servant are called.[1]
- Trans. by Craig Williamson, A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs (1982)
While the Exeter Book was found in a cathedral library, and while it is clear that religious scribes worked on the riddles, not all of the riddles in the book are religiously themed. Many of the answers to the riddles are everyday, common objects. There are also many double entendres, which can lead to an answer that is obscene. One example of this is Riddle 23/25:
- I am wonderful help to women,
- The hope of something to come. I harm
- No citizen except my slayer.
- Rooted I stand on a high bed.
- I am shaggy below. Sometimes the beautiful
- Peasant's daughter, an eager-armed,
- Proud woman grabs my body,
- Rushes my red skin, holds me hard,
- Claims my head. The curly-haired
- Woman who catches me fast will feel
- Our meeting. Her eye will be wet.[1]
- Trans. by Craig Williamson, A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs (1982)
One of the first answers that readers might think of would be an onion. If the reader pays close attention to the wording in the latter half of the riddle, however, he or she may be led to believe that the answer is a man's penis. Both of these answers are perfectly legitimate answers to this riddle, but one is very innocent where the other is obscene. Riddles in which such double entendre is thought to be prominent in the Exeter Book are: 2 (ox and hide), 20 (sword), 25 (onion), 37 (bellows), 42 (cock and hen), 44 (key and lock), 45 (dough), 54 (churn and butter), 61 (mailshirt or helmet), 62 (poker), 63 (glass beaker), 64 (Lot and his family), 65 (onion), 91 (key).[41] Even though some of the riddles contained obscene meanings, that is not to say that the majority of riddles in the Exeter Book were obscene. There were more religious and animalistic riddles than obscene riddles.
Since the riddles were crammed into the pages of the manuscript with hardly any organization, many of the riddles vary in structure. The boundaries between riddles were often unclear and translations are relatively rough.[40] The object of the riddles is generally preserved despite these possible errors. Notably, not a single one of the riddles found in the Exeter book were accompanied with answers. In fact, some remain unanswered to this day, such as Riddle 91:
- I am noble, known to rest in the quiet
- Keeping of many men, humble and high born.
- The plunderers’ joy, hauled far from friends,
- Rides richly on me, shines signifying power,
- Whether I proclaim the grandeur of halls,
- The wealth of cities, or the glory of God.
- Now wise men love most my strange way
- Of offering wisdom to many without voice.
- Though the children of earth eagerly seek
- To trace my trail, sometimes my tracks are dim.[1]
- Trans. by Craig Williamson, A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs (1982)
Types of riddles in the Exeter Book
According to Archer Taylor,[34] most riddles from the Exeter Book are 'true riddles' and can be placed into five categories:
- the true riddle
- the neck-riddle
- the arithmetical puzzle
- the clever question
- the conundrum (joke riddle)
Nigel F. Barley distinguishes four types:[42]
- metaphorical riddle
- joke-riddle
- riddle of generalisation
- riddle of negation
List of Exeter Book Riddles
The Exeter Book Riddles have the following solutions (according to the Riddle Ages blog and Paull F. Baum), and numbered according to the edition by Krapp and Dobbie.[43]
Folios | Solutions (1-88 Riddle Ages, 89-95 Baum) | Numbering (Krapp and Dobbie) | Numbering (Williamson) | Numbering (Baum) |
---|---|---|---|---|
101r | Storm, Wind, etc. | 1 | 1a | 1 |
101r | Storm, Wind, etc. | 2 | 1b | 2 |
101v-102v | Storm, Wind, etc. | 3 | 1c | |
102v | Bell, Bucket, Plough-team, etc. | 4 | 2 | 35 |
102v | Shield (most widely supported), Chopping Block, Guilt | 5 | 3 | 49 |
102v-103r | Sun | 6 | 4 | 17 |
103r | Swan | 7 | 5 | 21 |
103r | Nightingale (likely), Pipe or Flute, all manner of other birds, etc. | 8 | 6 | 22 |
103r-v | Cuckoo | 9 | 7 | 20 |
103v | Barnacle Goose | 10 | 8 | 23 |
103v | Wine or Cup of Wine | 11 | 9 | 18 |
103v-104r | Ox, Ox-hide, Leather (object), etc. | 12 | 10 | 24 |
104r | Ten chickens (this is the generally accepted one), ten pheasants, butterfly cocoon, alphabet, moth, fingers and gloves | 13 | 11 | 28 |
104r | Horn | 14 | 12 | 53 |
104v | Badger, Fox, Porcupine, Hedgehog, Weasel | 15 | 13 | 29 |
104v-105r | Anchor | 16 | 14 | 57 |
105r | Ballista, Fortress, Quiver, Bee-skep, etc. | 17 | 15 | 52 |
105r | Jug, Amphora, Cask, Leather bottle, Inkhorn, Phallus | 18 | 16 | |
105r | Ship, Falconry/Horseman and hawk [sometimes with wagon/servant] and Writing | 19 | 17 | 71 |
105r-105v | Sword, Falcon/Hawk, Phallus | 20 | 18 | 51 |
106r | Plough | 21 | 19 | 32 |
106r-106v | Ursa Major, (days of the) month, bridge, New Year, stars | 22 | 20 | 63 |
106v | Bow | 23 | 21 | 46 |
106v | Jay, Magpie, Woodpecker | 24 | 22 | 69 |
106v-107r | Onion, leek, mustard, phallus, etc | 25 | 23 | 76 |
107r-107v | Book, Bible, Gospel Book | 26 | 24 | 43 |
107v | Mead, Whip, Sleep | 27 | 25 | 59 |
107v | John Barleycorn, Wine cask, Beer, Ale, Mead, Harp, Stringed instrument, Tortoise lyre, Yew horn, Barrow, Trial of soul, Pattern-welded sword, Parchment, Biblical codex | 28 | 26 | 60 |
107v-108r | Sun and moon, swallow and sparrow, cloud and wind, bird and wind | 29 | 27 | 3 |
108r | Beam, Cross, Wood, Tree, Snowflake | 30 a and b | 28 a and b | 14 |
108r-108v | Psaltery and Quill-pick, Quill-pen and Fingers, Bagpipe, Fiddle, Portable Organ, Organistrum, Harp, Cithara | 31 | 29 | 44 |
108v | Ship, Wagon, Millstone, Wheel, Wheelbarrow | 32 | 30 | 58 |
108v-109r | Iceberg, Ice, Ice-floe | 33 | 31 | 6 |
109r | Rake | 34 | 32 | 31 |
109r-109v | Mail-coat (i.e. armour) | 35 | 33 | 50 |
109v | Ship; Man woman horse; Two men, woman, horses, dog, bird on ship; Waterfowl hunt; Pregnant horse, two pregnant women; Hunting; Sow and five piglets | 36 | 34 | 73 |
109v | Bellows, Wagon | 37 | 35 | 81 |
109v | (Young) Ox, Bullock | 38 | 36 | 26 |
109v-110r | Dream, Death, Cloud, Speech, Faith, Day, Moon, Time, Comet | 39 | 37 | 4 |
110r-111v | Creation | 40 | 38 | 11 |
112r | Water, Wisdom, Creation | 41 | 39 | |
112r | N N Æ A A H H = hana & hæn, or Cock and Hen | 42 | 40 | 70 |
112r-112v | Soul and Body | 43 | 41 | 10 |
112v | Key and lock, Phallus, Dagger sheath | 44 | 42 | 75 |
112v | Dough | 45 | 43 | 77 |
112v | Lot and his Daughters | 46 | 44 | 64 |
112v-113r | Book-worm, Book-moth, Maggot and psalter | 47 | 45 | 42 |
113r | Paten, Chalice, Sacramental vessel | 48 | 46 | 15 |
113r | Oven, Beehive, Falcon Cage, (Book)case, Pen and ink, Barrow, Sacrificial altar, Millpond and sluice | 49 | 47 | 38 |
113r | Fire, Anger, Dog | 50 | 48 | 8 |
113r-113v | Pen and fingers | 51 | 49 | 40 |
113v | Buckets, Broom, Flail, Yoked oxen | 52 | 50 | 66 |
113v | Battering Ram is the most common solution, but Cross and Gallows have also been suggested | 53 | 51 | 47 |
113v-114r | Butter churn, Baker’s boy and oven | 54 | 52 | 78 |
114r | Shield, Scabbard, Harp, Cross, Gallows, Sword rack, Sword box, Hengen | 55 | 53 | 13 |
114r | Loom, Lathe | 56 | 54 | 37 |
114r-114v | Swifts, Swallows, Crows, Jackdaws, Starlings, House martins, Letters, Musical notes, Gnats, Stormclouds, Hailstones, Raindrops, Bees, Midges, Damned souls, or Demons | 57 | 55 | 19 |
114v | Well-sweep | 58 | 56 | 34 |
114v-115r | Chalice | 59 | 57 | 16 |
122v-123r | Reed (pen), Rune staff | 60 | 58 | 41 |
124v | Shirt/Kirtle/Tunic, Garment, Helmet | 61 | 59 | 79 |
124v-125r | Poker, Boring tool, Phallus | 62 | 60 | 80 |
125r | Glass beaker, Flask, Flute | 63 | 61 | 84 |
125r | Man on horseback; falconry; ship; scribe; writing | 64 | 62 | 72 |
125r | Onion, Leek, Chives | 65 | 63 | 39 |
125r-125v | Creation, God | 66 | 64 | 12 |
125v | Bible, Religious Book | 67 | 65 | |
125v | Ice, Iceberg, Icicle, Frozen Pond | 68, 69 | 66 | 7 |
125v-126r | (Church) Bell, Shawm/Shepherd’s Pipe, (Double) Flute, Harp, Lyre, Organistrum, Shuttle; Lines 5-6 as a separate riddle: Lighthouse, Candle | 70 | 67, 68 | 45 |
126r | Cupping-glass, Iron Helmet, Iron Shield, Bronze Shield, Sword or Dagger, Sword-hilt, Iron Ore, Retainer | 71 | 69 | |
126r | Ox, Heifer, Cow | 72 | 70 | 25 |
126r-126v | Spear, bow, cross | 73 | 71 | 48 |
126v | Cuttlefish, Boat and oak, Quill pen, Ship’s figurehead, Siren, Water | 74 | 72 | 67 |
127r | Hound, Piss, Hound and Hind, Christ | 75, 76 | 73 | 74, 27 |
127r | Oyster | 77 | 74 | 30 |
127r | Crab, Oyster, Fish, Lamprey | 78 | 75 | |
127r | Horn, Falcon, Hawk, Spear, Sword, Scabbard | 79, 80 | 76 | 54 |
127v | Weathercock, Ship, Visored helmet | 81 | 77 | 36 |
127v | Crab, harrow | 82 | 78 | |
127v | Ore; metal; gold; coins; revenant; spirit | 83 | 79 | 9 |
127v-128v | Water | 84 | 80 | 5 |
128v | Fish and River, Body and Soul | 85 | 81 | 62 |
128v-129r | One-eyed Seller of Garlic | 86 | 82 | 61 |
129r-129v | Bellows | 87 | 83 | |
129v | Antler, Inkhorn, Horn, Body and Soul | 88 | 84, 85 | 55 |
129v | ? | 89 | 86 | |
129v | ? (a Latin text, arguably not actually a riddle)[44] | 90 | ||
129v-130r | Key | 91 | 87 | 33 |
130r | ? | 92 | 88 | |
130r | Inkhorn | 93 | 89 | 56 |
130r-130v | Creation | 94 | 90 | |
130v | The sun;[45] jay, magpie? | 95 | 91 | 68 |
Editions and translations
Major editions of the Exeter Book riddles are:
- The Riddles of the Exeter Book, ed. by Frederick Tupper (Boston: Ginn, c1910), archive.org, Wikimedia Commons
- Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp (eds), The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), digitised at https://web.archive.org/web/20181206091232/http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009
- Craig Williamson (ed), The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977)
- Bernard J. Muir (ed), The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000)
Major collections of translations are:
- Paull F. Baum, Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1963), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_Riddles_of_the_Exeter_Book
- Kevin Crossley-Holland (trans), The Exeter Book Riddles, revised edition (London: Enitharmon Press, 2008)
- Greg Delanty, Seamus Heaney and Michael Matto, The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation (New York: Norton, 2010)
- F. H. Whitman (ed and trans), Old English Riddles (Ottawa: Canadian Federation for the Humanities, 1982)
- Craig Williamson (trans), A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982)
A new collection of scholarly translations of the Exeter Book riddles is being produced in blog form at theriddleages.wordpress.com.
The Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project: https://uw.digitalmappa.org/58 is digitally editing, annotating and linking the Exeter Book Riddles to digital images of their manuscript pages, with modern translations.
Other Old English Riddles
There are also two Old English prose riddles, surviving on folio 16v in the mid-eleventh-century psalter British Library, Cotton Vitellius E.xviii, made in Winchester, within a short text on secret codes, found among a collection of notes, charms, prayers, and computistical tables.[46]
References
- Black, Joseph, et al., eds. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume 1: The Medieval Period. 2nd ed. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press,2009. Print.
- Dieter Bitterli, Say what I am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book and the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition, Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series, 2 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009).
- E.g. Patrick J. Murphy, Unriddling the Exteter Riddles (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), p. 16, citing Glorie and Sorrell.
- E.g. Helen Price, 'Human and NonHuman in Anglo-Saxon and British Postwar Poetry: Reshaping Literary Ecology' (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2013), http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6607/.
- Andy Orchard, "Enigma Variations: The Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Tradition," in Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, ed. by Andy Orchard and Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, 2 vols (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), I 284-304.
- Andy Orchard, 'Enigmata', in The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. by Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, 2nd edn (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2013), s.v.
- Milovanović-Barham, Čelica, 'Aldhelm's Enigmata and Byzantine Riddles', Anglo-Saxon England, 22 (1993), 51-64, doi:10.1017/S0263675100004300.
- Whitman, F. H. ‘Medieval Riddling: Factors Underlying Its Development’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 71 (1970), 177–85.
- Mercedes Salvador-Bello, 'Patterns of Compilation in Anglo-Latin Enigmata and the Evidence of A Source-Collection in Riddles 1-40 of the Exeter Book, Viator, 43 (2012), 339–374 (pp. 341-46). 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554.
- Andy Orchard, The Poetic Art of Aldhelm, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994 does not mention the Corpus Hermeticum.
- Cameron, M. L. 1985. ‘Aldhelm as naturalist: a re-examination of some of his Enigmata’, Peritia 4: 117–33 (pp. 131–33).
- Ehwald, Rvdolfvs (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, Monumenta Germanicae Historica, Auctorum Antiquissorum, 15, 3 vols (Berlin, 1919), i 144. Accessed from
- Alaric Hall, 'Madness, Medication — and Self-Induced Hallucination? Elleborus (and Woody Nightshade) in Anglo-Saxon England, 700–900', Leeds Studies in English, n.s. 44 (2013), 43-69 (pp. 45-46).
- Lapidge, Michael and James L. Rosier (trans.), Aldhelm: The Poetic Works (Cambridge, 1985), p. 93.
- Saint Aldhelm's "Riddles", ed. and trans. by A.M. Juster (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), pp. 69-71.
- Salvador-Bello, Mercedes (2014). Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press. p. 221. ISBN 9781935978527.
- Salvador-Bello. Isidorean Perceptions of Order. p. 222.
- Tupper, Frederick (1910). The Riddles of the Exeter Book. Boston: Ginn. pp. xxxiv.
- Lapidge, Michael; Rosier, James (2009). Aldhelm: The Poetic Works. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer. p. 66. ISBN 9781843841982.
- Orchard, Andy (1994). The Poetic Art of Aldhelm. CAmbridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 242. ISBN 9780521034579.
- Salvador-Bello. Isidorean Perceptions of Order. pp. 222–4.
- Mercedes Salvador-Bello, 'Patterns of Compilation in Anglo-Latin Enigmata and the Evidence of A Source-Collection in Riddles 1-40 of the Exeter Book, Viator, 43 (2012), 339–374 (pp. 346-49, 373). 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554.
- Lapidge "Tatwine" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Lapidge "Tatwine" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
- 'Aenigmata Tatvini', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Erika von Erhardt-Seebold, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), I 165-208.
- Williams, Mary Jane McDonald (1974). The Riddles of Tatwine and Eusebius. University of Michigan: Unpublished PhD Thesis. pp. 44–57.
- Salvador-Bello. Isidorean Perceptions of Order. p. 234.
- Thornbury, Emily V. (2014). Becoming a Poet in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 57–8.
- Mercedes Salvador-Bello, 'Patterns of Compilation in Anglo-Latin Enigmata and the Evidence of A Source-Collection in Riddles 1-40 of the Exeter Book, Viator, 43 (2012), 339–374 (p. 373-74). 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554.
- 'Aenigmata Evsebii', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Erika von Erhardt-Seebold, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), I 209-71.
- 'Aenigmata Bonifatii', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), I 273-343.
- Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 64.
- 'Aenigmata "lavreshamensia" [anigmata "anglica"]', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus, Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), I 345-58.
- Lind, Carol. Riddling the voices of others: The Old English Exeter Book riddles and a pedagogy of the anonymous. Diss. Illinois State University, 2007.
- James Paz, Nonhuman Voices in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Material Culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017), pp. 17-26; http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=631090.
- Helen Price, 'Human and NonHuman in Anglo-Saxon and British Postwar Poetry: Reshaping Literary Ecology' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Leeds, 2014), esp. ch. 2; http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6607/; https://www.academia.edu/6827866.
- Jennifer Neville, 'The Unexpected Treasure of the "Implement Trope": Hierarchical Relationships in the Old English Riddles', Review of English Studies, 62 [256] (2011), 505-519. doi: 10.1093/res/hgq131.
- John D. Niles, Old English Enigmatic Poems and the Play of the Texts, Studies in the early Middle Ages, 13 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006).
- Patrick J. Murphy. 2011. Unriddling the Exeter Riddles. University Park: Penn State University Press.
- Rios, Alberto. Anglo-Saxon Prosody, "Forms of Verse". Fall, 2000.
- Jacqueline Fay, ‘Becoming an Onion: The Extra-Human Nature of Genital Difference in the Old English Riddling and Medical Traditions’, English Studies, 101 (2020), 60-78 (p. 64); doi:10.1080/0013838X.2020.1708083.
- Nigel F. Barley, "Structural Aspects of the Anglo-Saxon Riddle", Semiotica 10 (2) (1974)
- Anglo-Saxon Riddles of the Exeter Book, trans. by Paull F. Baum (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1963), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_Riddles_of_the_Exeter_Book; George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936).
- Mercedes Salvador-Bello, 'Exeter Book Riddle 90 Under a New Light: A School Drill in Hisperic Robes', Neophilologus, 102 (2018), 107–123.
- Dieter Bitterli, 'Exeter Book Riddle 95: ‘The Sun’, a New Solution', Anglia, 137.4 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1515/ang-2019-0054.
- Dieter Bitterli, 'Two Old English Prose Riddles of the Eleventh Century', in Words, Words, Words: Philology and Beyond: Festschrift for Andreas Fischer on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, edited by Sarah Chevalier and Thomas Honegger (Tübingen: Franke, 2012), pp. 1-11.