Anglo-Saxon Riddles

Anglo-Saxon Riddles

Anglo-Saxon riddles are part of Anglo-Saxon literature. The most famous Anglo-Saxon riddles are found in the Exeter Book. This book contains secular and religious poems and other writings, along with a collection of 94 riddles, although there is speculation that there may have been closer to 100 riddles in the book. The riddles are written in a similar manner, but "it is unlikely that the whole collection was written by one person." It is more likely that many scribes worked on this collection of riddles. Although the Exeter Book has a unique and extensive collection of Anglo-Saxon riddles , riddles were not uncommon during this era. Riddles were both comical and obscene .

Purpose of the Riddles

The Exeter Book Riddles are varied in theme, but they are all used to engage and challenge the readers mentally. These riddles differ from the popular Latin riddles in that these English riddles do not rely on obscurity to make the riddle more difficult for the reader . Rather, the reader must be observant do any double meanings or "hinge words" in order to discover the answer to the riddle.

Because the Exeter Book was written by scribes who worked in a cathedral library, 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) . 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.

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:

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.

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 lead 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 very obscene. Even though some of the riddles contained obscene meanings, that is not to say that these were the majority of riddles in the Exeter Book were obscene. There were more religious and animalistic riddles than obscene riddles.

Types of Riddles

According to Archer Taylor , the riddles from the Exeter Book can be placed into five categories. The following are the five categories of riddles: the true riddle, the neck-riddle, the arithmetical puzzle, the clever question, and the conundrum.

The True Riddle

Taylor says that most of the riddles from the Exeter Book can be placed in this category.

The Neck-Riddle

Not very many riddles fall into this category because the answers to these riddles are only known by the author of the riddle, and it's purpose is to "save a person's neck if the situation ever arises." A contemporary example of this type of riddle is the riddle used by Bilbo Baggins, in J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit, to escape from Gollum.

References

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_Riddles