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.

The modern sculpture 'The Riddle' on Exeter High Street by Michael Fairfax, which is inscribed with texts of Old English riddles and evokes how they reflect the material world.

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 enigma

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]
Purple-bearing, lo!, I was growing in a field/the countryside, with shaggy/rough/hairy foliage/stalks/branches
similar to a shellfish/purple-fish/purple dye/purple cloth; thus with red murex/purple dye of my berry/red dye
purple blood drips/trickles from the vine-shoots in drops.
I do not wish to take away from the chewer the trappings of life,
nor will my gentle juices/poisons/potions utterly rob him of his mind;
but nevertheless a madness of the heart shakes/agitates/torments him, mad,
while, deranged by giddiness, he whirls his limbs in a circle.[13]
A purple flower, I grow in the fields with shaggy foliage.
I am very similar to an oyster: thus with reddened dye of scarlet
a purplish blood oozes by drops from my branches.
I do not wish to snatch away the spoils of life from him who eats me,
nor do my gentle poisons deprive him utterly of reason.
Nevertheless a certain touch of insanity torments him
as, mad with dizziness, he whirls his limbs in a circle.[14]

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

Around the same period, Tatwine composed forty acrostic riddles 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.[16][17][18] An example of Tatwine's work is enigma 11, on the needle:[19]: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 (traditionally but not securely identified with the Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory Hwætberht)[20] through the prefacing of 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.[21] Many are based on the encyclopaedic writing of Isidore of Seville.[6] An example of Eusebius's work is enigma 42, on the dragon:[22]: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.


Tatwine and Eusebius's riddles survive in the same two manuscripts, London, British Library, Royal 12.C.xxiii (early C11) and Cambridge, University Library, Gg.5.35 (mid-C11).

Meanwhile, Boniface composed a sequence of ten riddles on the virtues and another of ten on the vices.[23]

The Lorsch riddles are also thought to have been composed in Anglo-Saxon England.[24][25]

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.[19]

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.[22]

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][26] 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.[27]

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.[28] 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.[29] 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.[26][30] 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.[31] 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.[32]

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).[33] 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.[32] 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,[26] 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:[34]

  • 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.[35]

Solutions (1-88 Riddle Ages, 89-95 Baum) Numbering (Krapp and Dobbie)Numbering (Williamson)Numbering (Baum)
Storm, Wind, etc. 11a1
Storm, Wind, etc. 21b2
Storm, Wind, etc. 3 1c
Bell, Bucket, Plough-team, etc. 4235
Shield (most widely supported), Chopping Block, Guilt 5349
Sun 6417
Swan 7521
Nightingale (likely), Pipe or Flute, all manner of other birds, etc. 8622
Cuckoo 9720
Barnacle Goose 10823
Wine or Cup of Wine 11918
Ox, Ox-hide, Leather (object), etc. 121024
Ten chickens (this is the generally accepted one), ten pheasants, butterfly cocoon, alphabet, moth, fingers and gloves 131128
Horn 141253
Badger, Fox, Porcupine, Hedgehog, Weasel 151329
Anchor 161457
Ballista, Fortress, Quiver, Bee-skep, etc. 171552
Jug, Amphora, Cask, Leather bottle, Inkhorn, Phallus 18 16
Ship, Falconry/Horseman and hawk [sometimes with wagon/servant] and Writing 191771
Sword, Falcon/Hawk, Phallus 201851
Plough 211932
Ursa Major, (days of the) month, bridge, New Year, stars 222063
Bow 232146
Jay, Magpie, Woodpecker 242269
Onion, leek, mustard, phallus, etc 252376
Book, Bible, Gospel Book 262443
Mead, Whip, Sleep 272559
John Barleycorn, Wine cask, Beer, Ale, Mead, Harp, Stringed instrument, Tortoise lyre, Yew horn, Barrow, Trial of soul, Pattern-welded sword, Parchment, Biblical codex 282660
Sun and moon, swallow and sparrow, cloud and wind, bird and wind 29273
Beam, Cross, Wood, Tree, Snowflake 30 a and b28 a and b14
Psaltery and Quill-pick, Quill-pen and Fingers, Bagpipe, Fiddle, Portable Organ, Organistrum, Harp, Cithara 312944
Ship, Wagon, Millstone, Wheel, Wheelbarrow 323058
Iceberg, Ice, Ice-floe 33316
Rake 343231
Mail-coat (i.e. armour) 353350
Ship; Man woman horse; Two men, woman, horses, dog, bird on ship; Waterfowl hunt; Pregnant horse, two pregnant women; Hunting; Sow and five piglets 363473
Bellows, Wagon 373581
(Young) Ox, Bullock 383626
Dream, Death, Cloud, Speech, Faith, Day, Moon, Time, Comet 39374
Creation 403811
Water, Wisdom, Creation 41 39
N N Æ A A H H = hana & hæn, or Cock and Hen 424070
Soul and Body 434110
Key and lock, Phallus, Dagger sheath 444275
Dough 454377
Lot and his Daughters 464464
Book-worm, Book-moth, Maggot and psalter 474542
Paten, Chalice, Sacramental vessel 484615
Oven, Beehive, Falcon Cage, (Book)case, Pen and ink, Barrow, Sacrificial altar, Millpond and sluice 494738
Fire, Anger, Dog 50488
Pen and fingers 514940
Buckets, Broom, Flail, Yoked oxen 525066
Battering Ram is the most common solution, but Cross and Gallows have also been suggested 535147
Butter churn, Baker’s boy and oven 545278
Shield, Scabbard, Harp, Cross, Gallows, Sword rack, Sword box, Hengen 555313
Loom, Lathe 565437
Swifts, Swallows, Crows, Jackdaws, Starlings, House martins, Letters, Musical notes, Gnats, Stormclouds, Hailstones, Raindrops, Bees, Midges, Damned souls, or Demons 575519
Well-sweep 585634
Chalice 595716
Reed (pen), Rune staff 605841
Shirt/Kirtle/Tunic, Garment, Helmet 615979
Poker, Boring tool, Phallus 626080
Glass beaker, Flask, Flute 636184
Man on horseback; falconry; ship; scribe; writing 646272
Onion, Leek, Chives 656339
Creation, God 666412
Bible, Religious Book 67 65
Ice, Iceberg, Icicle, Frozen Pond 68, 69667
(Church) Bell, Shawm/Shepherd’s Pipe, (Double) Flute, Harp, Lyre, Organistrum, Shuttle; Lines 5-6 as a separate riddle: Lighthouse, Candle 7067, 6845
Cupping-glass, Iron Helmet, Iron Shield, Bronze Shield, Sword or Dagger, Sword-hilt, Iron Ore, Retainer 71 69
Ox, Heifer, Cow 727025
Spear, bow, cross 737148
Cuttlefish, Boat and oak, Quill pen, Ship’s figurehead, Siren, Water 747267
Hound, Piss, Hound and Hind, Christ 75, 767374, 27
Oyster 777430
Crab, Oyster, Fish, Lamprey 78 75
Horn, Falcon, Hawk, Spear, Sword, Scabbard 79, 807654
Weathercock, Ship, Visored helmet 817736
Crab, harrow 82 78
Ore; metal; gold; coins; revenant; spirit 83799
Water 84805
Fish and River, Body and Soul 858162
One-eyed Seller of Garlic 868261
Bellows 87 83
Antler, Inkhorn, Horn, Body and Soul 8884, 8555
? 89 86
Key 918733
? 92 88
Inkhorn 938956
Creation 94 90
Jay. Magpie? 959168

Editions and translations

Major editions of the Exeter Book riddles are:

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.

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.[36]

References
  1. Black, Joseph, et al., eds. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume 1: The Medieval Period. 2nd ed. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press,2009. Print.
  2. 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).
  3. E.g. Patrick J. Murphy, Unriddling the Exteter Riddles (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), p. 16, citing Glorie and Sorrell.
  4. 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/.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Milovanović-Barham, Čelica, 'Aldhelm's Enigmata and Byzantine Riddles', Anglo-Saxon England, 22 (1993), 51-64, doi:10.1017/S0263675100004300.
  8. Whitman, F. H. ‘Medieval Riddling: Factors Underlying Its Development’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 71 (1970), 177–85.
  9. 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.
  10. Andy Orchard, The Poetic Art of Aldhelm, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994 does not mention the Corpus Hermeticum.
  11. Cameron, M. L. 1985. ‘Aldhelm as naturalist: a re-examination of some of his Enigmata’, Peritia 4: 117–33 (pp. 131–33).
  12. Ehwald, Rvdolfvs (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, Monumenta Germanicae Historica, Auctorum Antiquissorum, 15, 3 vols (Berlin, 1919), i 144. Accessed from
  13. 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).
  14. Lapidge, Michael and James L. Rosier (trans.), Aldhelm: The Poetic Works (Cambridge, 1985), p. 93.
  15. Saint Aldhelm's "Riddles", ed. and trans. by A.M. Juster (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), pp. 69-71.
  16. 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.
  17. Lapidge "Tatwine" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  18. Lapidge "Tatwine" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
  19. '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.
  20. 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. 340 n. 3). 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554.
  21. 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.
  22. '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.
  23. '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.
  24. Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 64.
  25. '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.
  26. Lind, Carol. Riddling the voices of others: The Old English Exeter Book riddles and a pedagogy of the anonymous. Diss. Illinois State University, 2007.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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.
  30. John D. Niles, Old English Enigmatic Poems and the Play of the Texts, Studies in the early Middle Ages, 13 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006).
  31. Patrick J. Murphy. 2011. Unriddling the Exeter Riddles. University Park: Penn State University Press.
  32. Rios, Alberto. Anglo-Saxon Prosody, "Forms of Verse". Fall, 2000.
  33. 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.
  34. Nigel F. Barley, "Structural Aspects of the Anglo-Saxon Riddle", Semiotica 10 (2) (1974)
  35. 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).
  36. 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.
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