Riddle Ages

Symphosius Riddle 29: Ericius

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Plena domus spinis, parvi sed corporis hospes;

Incolumi dorso telis confixus acutis

Sustinet armatas segetes habitator inermis.

Translation:

A house full of spikes, but a guest of small body;

With an unharmed back, pierced by sharp points,

A defenceless inhabitant supports armed crops.

Click to show riddle solution?

Hedgehog

Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.

If you're researching/studying this collection, you should also consult this excellent new edition: T. J. Leary, ed. Symphosius: The Aenigmata, An Introduction, Text and Commentary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Textual differences in that edition include:

Ordering: Leary orders Riddles 29-31 as: phoenix, ericius, peduculus, while also acknowledging the possibility of the order here

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Exeter Riddle 29

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Tue 07 Oct 2014

Matching Riddle: Exeter Riddle 29

Did you get this one without looking at the solution? It’s usually seen as one of the more obvious Riddles: the sun and the moon. And because it is so obvious, people haven’t really found very much else to say about it. But let’s run through it quickly: The “creature” carrying the booty “between its horns” is the waxing moon – the image below nicely shows the “horns” and the space “between” them that gets filled up with light as the moon grows fuller. Then the sun comes over the horizon (if that’s what we think “over the roof/top of the wall” means) and slowly “takes back” its light, until the waning moon disappears into the new moon – nobody knows where it went, as in the final two lines. That’s it, then – done, dusted, let’s head off to the pub, shall we (maybe not this one though)?


Photo (by Christine Matthews) from the Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 2.0).


But I know you’ve got used to much more in-depth analysis here at The Riddle Ages, so let’s see what we can do, shall we? Sticking for the moment with the natural phenomena, what are we to make of the dew and dust in the final few lines of the poem? There was a medieval belief that the moon produced dew, so let’s run with that. But how can there be dew and dust at the same time? Wouldn’t you have to have some sort of muddy grit? Well, yes – nobody has really found a good explanation for this yet but maybe we shouldn’t take the riddle quite so literally here and just enjoy the nice balance between the rising dust and the falling dew.
However, as you may have come to expect by now, the riddle can also be read on an allegorical level: some scholars have argued that it also describes the Harrowing of Hell, where Christ overcomes Satan to rescue or liberate (ahreddan) condemned souls from hell and lead them into heaven. The sun is often a symbol for Christ in early medieval writings (and think back for example to Riddle 6). Occasionally we find the moon standing in for Satan (but not because of the horns!) and so the struggle described in the riddle can be seen as a battle between those two. The story of Satan’s uprising against God and his downfall was very popular in early medieval England and the language used in the riddle may give us a further hint here: like the moon in the riddle, Satan tries to build a home for himself in heaven, with the help of ill-gotten gains, and is eventually driven out into exile by God. There’s a nice play on the ham here: the moon is trying to establish a ham (in line 4) but is driven out of there into a different ham (line 9): his real home, the exile outside of heaven.
So even in riddles where everyone agrees on the solution, there’s usually still a lot more to be said if you get into it. That’s why the riddles are brilliant!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Joyce, John H. “Natural Process in Exeter Book Riddle #29.” Annuale Mediaevale, vol. 14 (1974), pages 5-13.

Murphy, Patrick J. Unriddling the Exeter Riddles. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2011, pages 123-39.

Whitman, Frank H. “The Christian Background to Two Riddle Motifs.” Studia Neophilologica, vol. 41 (1969), pages 93-8.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 29

Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 6

Eusebius Riddle 30: De atramentorio

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

Armorum fueram vice meque tenebat in armis

Fortis, et armigeri gestabar vertice tauri.

Vas tamen intus habens sum nunc intestina amara

Viscera, sed ructans bonus ibit nitor odoris.

Translation:

I was in the weapons’ role, and a strong one held me

In battle, and I was carried on the head of an armed bull.

I am now a vessel, however, holding bitter entrails and viscera 

Inside, but when I belch, good and elegant perfume will issue.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the inkhorn

Tags: riddles latin Eusebius

Tatwine Riddle 30: De ense et vagina

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Armigeri dura cordis compagine fingor,

Cuius et hirsuti extat circumstantia pepli,

Pangitur et secto cunctum de robore culmen

Pellibus exterius strictim; quae tegmina tute

Offensam diris defendunt imbribus aulam.

Translation:

I am shaped by the hard framework of a warlike heart,

which is encircled in a hairy cloak,

And whose whole top, cut from oak, is fastened 

Tightly on the outside by skins; these coverings safely

Defend the home from damage by dreadful rains.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the sword and sheath

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Exeter Riddles 30a and b

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Mon 13 Oct 2014

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddles 30a and b

We have all sorts of treats for you today, so I hope you’re glued to your seats and screens. Not literally…that would be more than a little weird. First of all, we have a double riddle. That sounds amazing, I know, but it also requires explanation. Up until now, the riddles have all appeared one after another in the Exeter Book, but there are two versions of Riddle 30 — one here, and one later in the manuscript, following Homiletic Fragment II (absolutely scintillating name…). We’ve decided to do both versions of Riddle 30 at the same time, and for these we have a guest translator. Pirkko Koppinen completed her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she is currently a visiting lecturer. She also brings to us an expertise in museum and heritage studies, as well as Finnish. Pirkko has generously offered us not only English translations of both Riddle 30a and b, but also Finnish ones. Surely this can be described as nothing short of a cornucopia of riddle-fun. Take it away, Pirkko!

Original text:

Riddle 30a

Ic eom legbysig,      lace mid winde,

bewunden mid wuldre,      wedre gesomnad,

fus forðweges,      fyre gebysgad,

bearu blowende,      byrnende gled.

5     Ful oft mec gesiþas      sendað æfter hondum,

þæt mec weras ond wif      wlonce cyssað.

Þonne ic mec onhæbbe,      ond hi onhnigaþ to me

monige mid miltse,      þær ic monnum sceal

ycan upcyme      eadignesse.

 

 

 

 

 

Riddle 30b

Ic eom ligbysig,      lace mid winde,

w[……………..]dre gesomnad,

fus forðweges,      fyre gemylted,

b[ . ] blowende,      byrnende gled.

5     Ful oft mec gesiþas      sendað æfter hondum,

þær mec weras ond wif      wlonce gecyssað.

Þonne ic mec onhæbbe,      hi onhnigað to me,

modge miltsum,      swa ic mongum sceal

ycan upcyme      eadignesse.

Translation:

Riddle 30a

I am busy with fire, fight with the wind,

wound around with glory, united with storm,

eager for the journey, agitated by fire;

[I am] a blooming grove, a burning ember.

5     Very often companions send me from hand to hand

so that proud men and women kiss me.

When I exalt myself and they bow to me,

many with humility, there I shall

bring increasing happiness to humans.

A free rendering of Riddle 30a into Finnish:

Minä ahkeroin tulen kanssa, leikin tuulella. [Minä olen] kietoutunut kunniaan, yhdistetty myrskyyn. [Olen] innokas lähtemään, liekillä kiihotettu. [Olen] kukoistava lehto, hehkuva hiillos. Kumppanit kierrättävät minua usein kädestä käteen siellä, missä korskeat miehet ja naiset suutelevat minua. Kun ylistän itseäni ja he, monet, nöyränä kumartavat minua, siellä minä tuon karttuvaa riemua ihmisille.

 

Riddle 30b

I am busy with fire, fight with the wind,

[…] united […],

eager for the journey, consumed by fire;

[I am] a blooming […], a burning ember.

5     Very often companions send me from hand to hand

where proud men and women kiss me.

When I exalt myself, high-spirited [ones]

bow to me with humility, in this way I shall

bring increasing happiness to many.

A free rendering of Riddle 30b into Finnish:

Minä ahkeroin tulen kanssa. Leikin tuulella. […] on kiedottu […]. [Olen] innokas lähtemään, tulessa tuhottu. [Olen] kukoistava […], hehkuva hiillos. Useasti kumppanit kierrättävät minua kädestä käteen siellä, missä korskeat miehet ja naiset suutelevat minua. Kun ylistän itseäni, ja he, ylväät, nöyränä kumartavat minua. Täten minä tuon karttuvaa riemua monille.

Click to show riddle solution?

Beam, Cross, Wood, Tree, Snowflake

Notes:

This riddle appears on folios 108r and 122v of The Exeter Book.

The above Old English text is based on this edition: Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp, eds, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pages 195-6 and 224-5.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 28a and b: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 85-6.

Textual Notes

The damaged words in Riddle 30b are marked with square brackets. I have highlighted the differences in the two texts in bold and translated accordingly. Line 7b in Riddle 30a reads on hin gað (which is a nonsensical form) in the manuscript and is emended to onhnigað by using the text of Riddle 30b (line 7b); see Krapp and Dobbie, page 338.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 30

Related Posts:
A Brief Introduction to Riddles
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 43
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 86

Aldhelm Riddle 30: Elementum

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Nos decem et septem genitae sine voce sorores

Sex alias nothas non dicimus annumerandas.

Nascimur ex ferro rursus ferro moribundae

Necnon et volucris penna volitantis ad aethram;

Terni nos fratres incerta matre crearunt.

Qui cupit instanter sitiens audire docentes,

Tum cito prompta damus rogitanti verba silenter.

Translation:

We, ten and seven sisters, born without a voice, 

Say that the six other illegitimates are not to be included. 

We are born of iron, will also die by iron, 

Or indeed by the feather of a bird flying through the sky.

Three brothers created us from an unknown mother.

Whoever in their thirst earnestly wishes to hear our teachings,

We quickly, silently give prepared words, then, to the one asking.

Click to show riddle solution?

Alphabet

Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.

Tags: riddles latin Aldhelm

Symphosius Riddle 30: Peduculus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Est nova nostrarum cunctis captura ferarum,

Ut, si quid capias, id tu tibi ferre recuses

Et, quod non capias, tecum tamen ipse reportes.

Translation:

There is, for everyone, a strange prey of our wild animals,

Which, if you should catch it, you will decline to bring it to you

And, if you should not catch it, it may yet bring itself back with you.

Click to show riddle solution?

Louse

Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.

If you're researching/studying this collection, you should also consult this excellent new edition: T. J. Leary, ed. Symphosius: The Aenigmata, An Introduction, Text and Commentary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Textual differences in that edition include:

Ordering: Leary orders Riddles 29-31 as: phoenix, ericius, peduculus, while also acknowledging the possibility of the order here

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Exeter Riddles 30a and b

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Tue 21 Oct 2014

Matching Riddle: Exeter Riddles 30a and b

Like last week’s translations, Riddle 30a and b’s commentary once again comes to us from Pirkko Koppinen:
 
Riddle 30 exists as two separate texts in the manuscript, Riddle 30a and Riddle 30b (Krapp and Dobbie’s numbering). Such a double text is rare in Old English poetry. The reason why the riddle was copied in the manuscript twice will never be known for sure. There are some minor differences, however, which suggest to A. N. Doane that the scribe was copying the texts also “sonically” rather than just visually (page 49). The differences affect the interpretation of the two poems in terms of nuance, but in terms of solution they are of no major consequence (unless you wish to contest the accepted solution, of course). Riddle 30a is intact, but Riddle 30b has been damaged with a hot poker, which curiously fits the content of the poem; that is, the poem makes several references to fire.
Translating the first four lines of Riddle 30a and Riddle 30b is translating “earth, wind, and fire.” No, I do not mean that wonderful, American band that brought us many a disco tune; I mean the elements. At the beginning of the poem (of both texts) we learn about the riddle creature’s various preoccupations first with fire (line 1a), then wind (line 1b) and storm (line 2b), then fire (line 3b) again, then earth (“grove”, line 4a), and then once more its dealings with fire (line 4b). It is not surprising then that these lines have suggested to the solvers that we are dealing with a “tree.” Solving the rest of the riddle means understanding how trees were metamorphosed into wooden objects and matching those with the clues of the riddle.
As a cup, the riddle creature – transformed from wood into a material object – is passed from hand to hand and kissed by proud men and women (lines 5-6 in both riddles). The image recalls the communal drinking rituals in Beowulf where the men drink from their lord’s – or lady’s – cup as a gesture of loyalty (see e.g. Beowulf, lines 491-95a, 615-24, 1014b-17a, 1024b-25a, 1170, 1192-93a and 1231). The word wlonce (proud) in Riddle 30a and Riddle 30b, which in Old English is often used to describe princes and queens, suggests that we are indeed dealing with the high-ranking people, such as those depicted in Beowulf. The cup in the riddles may be a wooden cup decorated with an interlace collar, such as that found in the Sutton Hoo boat burial – a worthy drinking vessel of the early medieval royalty. It has been suggested that fus forweges (“eager for the journey,” line 3a) refers to a “ship” constructed of wood, but the phrase could also refer to the way a wooden log is quickly engulfed in flames once it ignites.
The last three lines of the poems explain how people show reverence to the riddle creature, and these lines have suggested to solvers that what we are dealing with is “a cross.” It was an important symbol for the newly converted early English Christian, as is demonstrated through the wonderful poem The Dream of the Rood (full translation here), which describes how the tree first grows free in the forest before it is cut down and transformed into gallows and then – washed with the Saviour’s blood – is transformed into a revered symbol of salvation. The cross, a narrator in The Rood, decorated with jewels is bewunden mid wuldre (“wound around with glory,” Riddle 30a, line 2a; Riddle 30b is damaged at this point). Just like the cross in The Rood, the riddle creature brings eadignesse (happiness/joy) to people when they bow to it; that is, when they pray to the cross for their salvation.
Wood as a material was of utmost importance for the early English. They built houses from timber, domestic objects from wood, and woodland trees were part of their economic landscape. Wood and trees were used in their food and drink production as a fuel and produce. In other words, wood was an integral part of the peoples' everyday life – not only in terms of their physical existence but also in terms of their religious beliefs (see Bintley and Shapland).
As a Finn, I understand this closeness to trees and wood as material of the everyday. I grew up in a house that was built in 1890 from wood and which was also heated solely with wood in the cold months. Wooden objects may not be as ubiquitous today as they were a hundred years ago, but, like the early medieval economy at the time, Finnish economy has been always also partially reliant on its forests. So translating Riddle 30a and Riddle 30b was a nostalgic affair to me. It made me think of how fire consumed wood when we heated the sauna in our wooden summer cottage. I remembered how we heated the coffee pot and cooked our meals on top of the wood burning stove where the logs turned into burning embers and still do in many Finnish houses and summer and winter cottages.

 
Photograph by Mira Suopelto

I remembered how we walked through the woods in a windy day and watched the trees bend and struggle in the wind and storm.


Photograph by P. Koppinen

Spoons, cups, jugs, and bowls would have been “kissed” by both men and women – of high status as well as others. Wooden objects are still crafted and used today, although not used as often as they were a hundred years ago.


Photograph by P. Koppinen

Our wooden churches were often built in the form of a cross and many a decorated altar piece is built from wood and “wound around with glory,” in front of which the congregation bow their heads in humility. This personal experience of trees, wood and woodlands of Finland created for me an intimate relationship with the riddle creature, which aided me in my attempt to translate the two riddles into Finnish. The Finnish translations are a little crude, literal translations, but they convey my nostalgia of Finnish forest, trees, and woodlands in my childhood so beautifully described in Riddle 30a and Riddle 30b. Of course, the riddle-texts may have led the solvers – along with me – astray and these riddles remain, as A. J. Wyatt has suggested, still unsolved. But that is the fun of riddles; there is always another way of reading the text, mystery to be solved and solution to be found. For now, I am happy to reminisce about the trees of my childhood.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Bintley, Michael D. J., and Michael G. Shapland, eds. Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Doane, A. N. “Spacing, Placing and Effacing: Scribal Textuality and Exeter Riddle 30 a/b.” In New Approaches to Editing Old English Verse. Ed. by Sarah Larratt Keefer and Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe. Cambridge: Brewer, 1998, pages 45-65.

Koppinen, Pirkko Anneli. “Breaking the Mould: Solving Riddle 12 as Wudu “Wood”.” In Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World. Ed. by Bintley and Shapland (see above), pages 158-76.

Liuzza, R. M. “The Texts of the Old English Riddle 30.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 87 (1988), pages 1-15.

Niles, John D. Old English Enigmatic Poems and the Play of the Texts. Studies in Early Middle Ages, vol. 13. Turnhout: Brepols, 2006.

Wyatt, A. J., ed. Old English Riddles. The Belles Lettres Series, vol. 1. Boston, MA: Heath, 1912.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 30 pirkko koppinen riddle 30a riddle 30b

Related Posts:
Exeter Riddles 30a and b

Eusebius Riddle 31: De caera

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

Aequalem facie, scindit me vomer acutus,

At sulcata manens semper sum seminis expers.

Scissa premor post haec, sed sum speciosior inde.

Nunc ego verba tenens; nunc saepe repello tenebras.

Translation:

A sharp plough cuts me, smooth of face,

But although I remain grooved, I always lack seed. 

Cut, I am pressed afterwards, but I am then more beautiful. 

Now I hold words; now often I repel the darkness.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the wax tablet

Tags: riddles latin Eusebius

Tatwine Riddle 31: De scintilla

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Testor quod crevi, rarus mihi credere sed vult,

Nam nasci, gelido natum de viscere matris

Vere quae numquam sensit spiramina vitae,

Ipsa tamen mansit vivens in ventre sepultus.

Translation:

I testify how I came to be, but rare is he who wishes to believe me, 

For I was born, the child of the icy inside of my mother

Who never truly felt the breaths of life, 

Yet I remained alive, buried in that belly.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the spark

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Exeter Riddle 31

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Thu 13 Nov 2014

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 31

This week’s translation is a guest post from Christopher Laprade. Christopher is a PhD student at the University of Toronto, where he is working on book history and early modern drama.

Original text:

Is þes middangeard     missenlicum

wisum gewlitegad,     wrættum gefrætwad.

Ic seah sellic þing     singan on ræcede;

wiht wæs nower (1)      werum on gemonge

5     sio hæfde wæstum     wundorlicran.

Niþerweard      wæs neb hyre,

fet ond folme     fugele gelice;

no hwæþre fleogan mæg     ne fela gongan,

hwæþre feþegeorn     fremman onginneð,

10     gecoren cræftum,      cyrreð geneahhe

oft ond gelome     eorlum on gemonge,

siteð æt symble,     sæles bideþ,

hwonne ær heo cræft hyre     cyþan mote

werum on gemonge.     Ne heo þær wiht þigeð

15     þæs þe him æt blisse     beornas habbað.

Deor domes georn,     hio dumb wunað;

hwæþre hyre is on fote     fæger hleoþor,

wynlicu woðgiefu.     Wrætlic me þinceð,

hu seo wiht mæge     wordum lacan

20     þurh fot neoþan,     frætwed hyrstum.

Hafað hyre on halse,     þonne hio hord warað,

baru (2), beagum deall,     broþor sine,

mæg mid mægne.     Micel is to hycgenne

wisum woðboran     hwæt sio (3) wiht sie.

Translation:

This middle earth is in manifold

ways made beautiful, with works of art adorned.

I saw a strange thing sing in a hall;

nowhere was there a creature among men

5     that had a more fantastic form.

Downward was her beak,

feet and hands like a bird;

she may not fly, however, nor walk much,

yet eager to go she begins to perform,

10     chosen with skill, she moves frequently

often and again among men,

sits at the feast, bides her time,

until when she might make known her skill

amidst the men. She consumes nothing

15     that the men there have for their pleasure.

Brave, eager for glory, she sits silent;

yet there is in her foot a fair sound,

a charming gift of song. It seems curious to me,

how that creature can play with words

20     through that foot from beneath, adorned with finery.

They have her by the neck, when she guards treasure,

bare, proud with rings, her brothers,

maid among an army. It is a great thing to think

for a wise songster what that creature may be.

Click to show riddle solution?

Bagpipes, Quill Pen and Fingers, Musical Instrument

Notes:

This riddle appears on folios 108r-108v of The Exeter Book.

The above Old English text is based on this edition: Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp, eds, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), page 196.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 29: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 86-7.

Textual Notes

(1) nower is an editorial intervention that does not appear in the manuscript;
(2) note that Krapp and Dobbie retain the manuscript form bær, while Williamson emends to baru;
(3) sio also does not appear in the manuscript.

This page was edited for clarity on 30 November 2020 and its list of solutions on 17 March 2022.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 31

Related Posts:
Response to Exeter Riddle 39
Exeter Riddle 39
Exeter Riddle 54

Aldhelm Riddle 31: Ciconia

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Candida forma nitens necnon et furva nigrescens

Est mihi, dum varia componor imagine pennae;

Voce carens tremula nam faxo crepacula rostro.

Quamvis squamigeros discerpam dira colobros,

Non mea letiferis turgescunt membra venenis;

Sic teneres pullos prolemque nutrire suesco

Carne venenata tetroque cruore draconum.

Translation:

I have a shining white appearance and also one that

Dims to dark, since I am composed of the feather’s varied image;

I lack a quavering voice, for I will make rattles with my beak.

Although I, dreadful, will mangle scaly snakes,

My limbs will not swell with fatal venom;

Thus am I used to feeding young chickens and offspring

With the poisoned flesh and the foul blood of snakes.

Click to show riddle solution?

Stork

Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.

Tags: riddles latin Aldhelm

Symphosius Riddle 31: Phoenix

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Vita mihi mors est; morior si coepero nasci.

Sed prius est fatum leti quam lucis origo.

Sic solus Manes ipsos mihi dico parentes.

Translation:

My life is death; if I die I begin to be born.

But before the fate of death is the beginning of light.

Thus I alone call the Manes themselves my parents.

Click to show riddle solution?

Phoenix

Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.

If you're researching/studying this collection, you should also consult this excellent new edition: T. J. Leary, ed. Symphosius: The Aenigmata, An Introduction, Text and Commentary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Textual differences in that edition include:

Ordering: Leary orders Riddles 29-31 as: phoenix, ericius, peduculus, while also acknowledging the possibility of the order here

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Exeter Riddle 31

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Wed 17 Feb 2021

Matching Riddle: Exeter Riddle 31

How do you solve a problem like a bird who sings through her foot? That, my friends, is the question on my mind.

Riddle 31 is a riddle (obv) about an object living her best life. What, precisely, she is…well, that’s up for debate. Most editors of the Old English riddles solve Riddle 31 as Bagpipes. They reckon that the multiple references to a creature singing and showing off mad skillz in the hall means this is a musical instrument. And they reckon that the fantastic form of the object – with her downward beak and musical foot – suggests the chanter and drones of the bagpipes. The guarding of treasure in line 21 becomes the breath of the performer, which the instrument takes in, controls and releases to musical effect. It’s quite common for birds to be associated with musicality in the riddles – I’m thinking here of Riddle 7’s swan and Riddle 57’s crows or swifts – but bagpipe tunes are perhaps less bird-like in their song than many other types of music.

Here are some very un-bird-like bagpipes in all their epic glory:



Other musical instruments have also been mooted (I love the word mooted, btw…we should all use this word way more often) as the solution, partly because evidence for the use of bagpipes in early medieval England is, shall we say, lacking. But, as Jonathan Wilcox reassures us, this instrument was widespread in agricultural societies and there are plenty of later medieval references and drawings to suggest that early medieval bagpipes were probably a thing (pages 138-40).

In fact, even though there isn’t much evidence for their use in early medieval England, it is very possible that the protruding drones and bird-like feet in the early 11th-century image below could depict the instrument (Wilcox, page 144, note 41):



Image from the famous Junius Manuscript (p. 57) Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (licence: CC-BY-NC 4.0).

So, we could have a case of the ol’ bagpipes here in Riddle 31.

The other, non-musical instrument option is a Quill Pen and Fingers. Yes, Donald K. Fry grappled with the birdy imagery in this riddle and its references to songs, treasure and flying-not-flying, and decided this is clearly another riddle about the scriptorium. Unfortunately, I can’t get a hold of this article right now (#pandemic), but I’ve written myself a note to follow up on this later.*

Still, I imagine that to read the riddle as a quill pen, we’d assume the riddle’s birdy imagery stems from the feather used to create the quill, with the downward beak as its pointed tip. The references to the bird’s foot could perhaps point toward a feathery wing and line 8-9’s description of the object’s eagerness to perform despite being unable to fly or walk should make us think of feather pens furiously scribbling across a page. All those songs – well those are the words that the pen delivers, a veritable treasure-hoard of ideas.



Image from Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

While we might imagine the hall setting with its music and feasting as a literal location for the use of the bagpipes, in order to solve the riddle as quill pen, the hall is probably best interpreted as a metaphor for the scriptorium. Songs are still appropriate in this setting if they’re words read out from the page. But the feasting? I don’t really know what to do with that, unless we imagine a scene change that moves us back into a literal hall where a written document is read out to frolickers. Hmm…not sure about that. Give me a shout if you have better ideas.

All in all, I prefer the bagpipes reading myself, in part because Jonathan Wilcox has made such a good case for interpreting the incongruity of this riddle as humorous. The monstrosity of this object with all the wrong sorts of body-parts could be priming us for humour, while the bagpipes attract humour because of the instrument’s “lack of subtlety as an object built on a literal windbag. Bagpipes can encode the windiness of unrestrained speech or the flatulent pouring forth of an unrestrained body” (page 140). The fact that the instrument is compared to bird-like song is all the funnier if you imagine a real bird letting out the sound of a bagpipe.

As a final gift to you, I’d also like to note that Wilcox’s essay led me to a range of truly brilliant medieval images including this fabulous late 11th-century Spanish musical duo:



Illustration in Beatus of Liebena’s Commentary on the Apocalypse from London, British Library Add MS 11695, folio 86r (Photo: © British Library).

A work of genius. Truly, my life is now complete.

*Editorial Note (22 February 2021): I have now tracked down Fry’s article and it chimes with what I said above. Fry notes lots of examples of riddles in both Old English and Anglo-Latin that play with the following motifs: “banquet, bird, inability to speak, and words as treasure” (page 236). He points to a few instances where the tasting of wisdom or words might explain what the feast hall is doing in this riddle. I don’t personally think that any of the examples given are close enough to Riddle 31 to fully explain its scene of feasting, but feel free to read the article and judge for yourselves!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Fry, Donald K. “Exeter Riddle 31: Feather-Pen.” In De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir. Edited by J. M. Foley, C. J. Womack, and W. A. Womack. New York: Garland, 1992, pages 234-49.

Wilcox, Jonathan. “Humour and the Exeter Book Riddles: Incongruity in Feþegeorn (R.31).” In Riddles at Work in the Early Medieval Tradition: Words, Ideas, Interactions. Edited by Megan Cavell and Jennifer Neville. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020, pages 128-45.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 31

Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 7
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 57
Exeter Riddle 57
Exeter Riddle 7

Exeter Riddle 32

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Sun 07 Dec 2014

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 32

Original text:

Is þes middangeard     missenlicum

wisum gewlitegad,     wrættum gefrætwad.

Siþum sellic     ic seah searo hweorfan,

grindan wið greote,     giellende faran.

5     Næfde sellicu wiht     syne ne folme,

exle ne earmas;     sceal on anum fet

searoceap swifan,     swiþe feran,

faran ofer feldas.     Hæfde fela ribba;

muð wæs on middan.     Moncynne nyt,

10     fereð foddurwelan,     folcscipe dreogeð,

wist in wigeð,     ond werum gieldeð

gaful geara gehwam     þæs þe guman brucað,

rice ond heane.     Rece, gif þu cunne,

wis worda gleaw,     hwæt sio wiht sie.

Translation:

This middle-earth is made beautiful

in various ways, adorned with ornaments.

At times I saw strange contraption move about,

grind against the grit, go screaming.

5     The strange creature did not have sight nor hands,

shoulders nor arms; on one foot must

the cunning contraption move, powerfully journey,

going over fields. It had many ribs;

its mouth was in the middle. Useful to mankind,

10     it bears an abundance of food, works for the people,

carries sustenance within, and yields to men

treasure every year that those men enjoy,

rich and poor. Tell, if you know,

wise and prudent in words, what that creature may be.

Click to show riddle solution?

Ship, Wagon, Millstone, Wheel, Wheelbarrow

Notes:

This riddle appears on folio 108v of The Exeter Book.

The above Old English text is based on this edition: Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp, eds, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pages 196-7.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 30: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), page 87.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 32

Related Posts:
Response to Exeter Riddle 39
Exeter Riddle 18
Exeter Riddle 39

Eusebius Riddle 32: De membrano

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

Antea per nos vox resonabat verba nequaquam.

Distincta sine nunc voce edere verba solemus.

Candida sed cum arva, lustramur milibus atris.

Viva nihil loquimur; responsum mortua famur.

Translation:

Formerly a voice did not utter words through us at all.

Now it is our custom to declare words without articulated voice.

Though white fields, we are traversed by innumerable black things.

Alive, we say nothing; dead, we speak our response.

Click to show riddle solution?

On parchment

Tags: riddles latin Eusebius

Tatwine Riddle 32: De sagitta

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Armigeros inter Martis, me bella subire

Obvia fata iuvant et corpora sternere leto,

Insidiasque gregi cautas inferre ferino,

Nunc iuvenum laetos inter discurrere caetus.

Translation:

Among Mars’ soldiers, the fates are ready to help

Me to wage war and scatter bodies in death,

And to set prudent plots against the wild animal,

And now to run around among the cheerful groups of youths.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the arrow

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Aldhelm Riddle 32: Pugillares

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Melligeris apibus mea prima processit origo,

Sed pars exterior crescebat cetera silvis;

Calciamenta mihi tradebant tergora dura.

Nunc ferri stimulus faciem proscindit amoenam

Flexibus et sulcos obliquat adinstar aratri,

Sed semen segiti de caelo ducitur almum,

Quod largos generat millena fruge maniplos.

Heu! tam sancta seges diris extinguitur armis.

Translation:

My first origin came from honeybees, 

But my other, outer part grew in the forest;

Stiff skins gave me shoes.

Now the iron stylus cuts through my lovely face,

With its turnings and twists cuts grooves like a plough,

But the crop’s holy seed is brought from heaven, 

And it propagates bountiful bundles with its thousand-strong fruit.

Alas! Such a holy harvest is killed by fearful arms.

Click to show riddle solution?

Writing Tablets

Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.

Tags: riddles latin Aldhelm

Symphosius Riddle 32: Taurus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Moechus eram regis, sed lignea membra sequebar.

Et Cilicum mons sum, sed mons sum nomine solo.

Et vehor in caelis et in ipsis ambulo terris.

Translation:

I was an adulterer of royalty, but I followed wooden limbs.

And I am a Cilician mountain, but I am a mountain only in name.

And I ride in the heavens and walk on the earth itself.

Click to show riddle solution?

Bull

Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.

If you're researching/studying this collection, you should also consult this excellent new edition: T. J. Leary, ed. Symphosius: The Aenigmata, An Introduction, Text and Commentary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Textual differences in that edition include:

line 2: mons sum > non sum

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Exeter Riddle 32

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Tue 23 Dec 2014

Matching Riddle: Exeter Riddle 32

Hello, readers. Have you missed me? I’m sure that you have, but my need for validation means I just gotta ask. I’ve had a busy-busy term, and have been oh so very lucky that all sorts of lovely guest bloggers have turned up to entertain you. But now it’s the holidays, which means it’s my turn again.
Let’s talk about ships.
But is the subject of Riddle 32 a ship? You are, perhaps, not convinced. There are other suggestions for the solution, which include Wagon, Millstone, Wheel and Wheelbarrow. Naturally, the library has none of the books I need to tell you all about the folks who suggested these things (it’s the holidays, so the library has already been pillaged from pillar to post by keen vacationers). However, I can tell you that Ship is a scholarly favourite. How’s about I explain why I like it and then you write in if you prefer one of the other readings? Yes, let’s do that.
Right, so ships. The first thing I’ll say is that the screaming we see in line 4b (giellende) is quite a bird-like act. Huh? Let me rephrase: in other Old English poems, the verb gyllan (to scream/yell/call) is applied to the sounds of birds. So in Solomon and Saturn II, the strange, apocalyptic bird referred to as the Vasa Mortis gilleð geomorlice and his gyrn sefað (Anlezark, line 90 or ASPR, line 282) (calls miserably and mourns its misfortune). Equally, The Seafarer is marked by avian imagery when it describes the gifre ond grædig (eager and greedy) anfloga (lone-flier), which gielleð (calls) in line 62. Finally, Riddle 24’s magpie hwilum gielle swa hafoc (line 3b) (sometimes calls like a hawk). And, as we know from poems like Beowulf, ships are the giant manmade birds of the sea (write that in an essay…I dare you!). Hence, the poem refers to the flota famiheals fugle gelicost (line 218) (foamy-necked ship most like a bird) and the swanrad (line 200a) (swan-road), the latter of which is a kenning for the sea (also appearing in Andreas, line 196b). So, the sound that the subject of Riddle 32 makes gels with other Old English poetic approaches to ships.


Here’s the famous Norwegian Oseberg ship. Photo (by Uwe kils) from the Wikimedia Commons.

What about all that grinding? Surely grindan in line 4a could be better linked to a millstone, non? Well, yes, but that’s not to say that ships don’t also grind (best mental image ever: Old English dance-party…ships grinding to hiphop music…shocked monks looking on from the sidelines). In fact, in Guthlac B, we have almost the exact same half-line applied to a ship:
                              Lagumearg snyrede,

gehlæsted to hyðe,     þæt se hærnflota

æfter sundplegan     sondlond gespearn,

grond wið greote. (1332b-5a)
(The sea-steed hastened, laden to the landing, so that the wave-floater after the swim-play perched upon the sandy land, ground against the grit.)
The half-line is again repeated in Andreas, as grund wið greote (line 425a). These three instances are the only times that grindan and greot are linked in Old English literature. So, what we can now see is clearly a poetic formula (a repeated, variable verse unit) – grindan wið greote – has clear shippy connotations. These aren’t the only formulas in Riddle 32: the opening and closing half-lines can be found in the riddle directly before this one in the manuscript. These poets know their shiz, man.
Anywho, the formulaic stuff I’ve just discussed has me convinced of the ship reading, although I recognize that faran ofer feldas (line 8a) (going over fields) is a better literal description of a wheelbarrow. To that I say: since when are riddles literal? Directly following this half-line, we have ribs, which are almost certainly not literal ribs. This metaphor could be applied to any rounded object, but I like the image of the ship’s wooden planks as the creature’s ribs.

 
It’s a bit blurry, but check out this model of the Sutton Hoo ship burial. Look ribby enough for you? Photo (by Steven J. Plunkett) from the Wikimedia Commons.

A ship is also a terribly cunning contraption that looks a heck of a lot like a giant foot (á la line 6b). Fact. So, I’m throwing my lot in with Ship.
If you want to know just what type of ship this might be, then look no further than lines 9b-13. Here, the poet tells us that the riddle-subject brings food and treasures (metaphorical or literal) to people rich and poor. This reference points to the use of ships as transport vessels for all things mercantile – hence Niles has solved the riddle in Old English as Ceap-scip (merchant ship) (page 141). The transportation of goods via waterways in early medieval England was common (Williamson, page 236). Katrin Thier talks about ships of various breeds and creeds in her article on nautical material culture, but…as with all the other books in the library, her article is currently unavailable to me.
Given the general library pillaging that has gone on up here in Durham, I can only conclude that it must be the holiday season! So, with that realization, I’m going to stop blogging at you and go eat some mince pies. May the ships of the holiday season bring you all an abundance of food and treasure! That’s a thing, right?
*hastily re-reads riddle to check whether it could in fact describe Santa’s sleigh*

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Anlezark, Daniel, ed. and trans. The Old English Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn. Anglo-Saxon Texts, vol. 7. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2009.

Niles, John D. Old English Enigmatic Poems and the Play of the Texts. Studies in the Early Middle Ages, vol. 13. Turnhout: Brepols, 2006.

Thier, Katrin. “Steep Vessel, High Horn-ship: Water Transport.” In The Material Culture of Daily Living in the Anglo-Saxon World. Edited by Maren Clegg Hyer and Gale R. Owen-Crocker. Exeter Studies in Medieval Europe. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2011, pages 49-72.

Williamson, Craig, ed. The Old English Riddles of The Exeter Book. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 32

Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 24

Exeter Riddle 33

MEGANCAVELL

Date: Wed 07 Jan 2015

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Exeter Riddle 33

Riddle 33’s translation is by Britt Mize. Britt is Associate Professor of English and Rothrock Research Fellow at Texas A&M University where he works on Old and Middle English language, literature and poetics.

Original text:

Wiht cwom æfter wege      wrætlicu liþan,

cymlic from ceole     cleopode to londe,

hlinsade hlude;      hleahtor wæs gryrelic,

egesful on earde,      ecge wæron scearpe.

5     Wæs hio hetegrim,     hilde to sæne,

biter beadoweorca;     bordweallas grof,

heard, hiþende,      heterune bond.

Sægde searocræftig     ymb hyre sylfre gesceaft:

“Is min modor     mægða cynnes

10     þæs deorestan,      þæt is dohtor min

eacen up liden;     swa þæt is ældum cuþ,

firum on folce,     þæt seo on foldan sceal

on ealra londa gehwam     lissum stondan.”

Translation:

Something wondrous came moving over wave;

the beautiful thing called out to shore from the ship,

resounded loudly. Its laughter was horrible,

terrible in the land. Its edges were sharp.

5   She was hate-fierce, slow in combat,

bitter in battle-deeds; hard, ravaging,

she carved into shield-walls, bound them with a hate-rune.

The cunning thing spoke of her own creation:

“My mother, the dearest of maiden-kind,

10   is the one who is my daughter,

grown up strong. It is known to men,

to folk among the people, that she shall come with joy

to the surface of the earth in every single land.”

Click to show riddle solution?

Iceberg, Ice, Ice-floe

Notes:

This riddle appears on folios 108v-109r of The Exeter Book.

The above Old English text is based on this edition: Elliott van Kirk Dobbie and George Philip Krapp, eds, The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), page 197, but note that the punctuation differs at lines 7-8 and 11.

Note that this edition numbers the text Riddle 31: Craig Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), pages 87-8.

Tags: anglo saxon exeter book riddles old english solutions riddle 33

Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddles 1-3
Exeter Riddle 51
Exeter Riddle 72

Eusebius Riddle 33: De scaetha

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

In me multigena sapientia constat habunde,

Nec tamen illud scire, quid est sapientia, possum.

Cum prudentia forte meo processerit ore,

Tunc quod ab internis venit intus habere nequibo.

Translation:

In me wisdom of many kinds stands plentifully,

And yet I cannot know what wisdom is.

If prudence will proceed from my mouth by chance,

I will then be unable to keep inside that which comes from within.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the book-satchel

Notes:

Note: The solution given is a rare Latin word (also spelled scetha), which may be translated as “bookcase, or “book-wallet.” The sense seems to be “container of books.”

Tags: riddles latin Eusebius

Tatwine Riddle 33: De igne

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Testatur simplex triplicem natura figuram

Esse meam, haut mortales qua sine vivere possunt.

Multiplici quibus, en, bona munere grata ministro,

Tristitia non numquam tamen; sum haut exorsus ab illis.

Translation:

My single condition is witness to my threefold 

Form, without which mortals are scarcely able to live.   

Indeed, through numerous gifts I provide them with pleasing goods,

Though not never sadness; I was by no means begun by mortals.

Click to show riddle solution?

On fire

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Symphosius Riddle 33: Lupus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Dentibus insanis ego sum, qui vinco bidentes,

Sanguineas praedas quaerens victusque cruentos;

Multaque cum rabie vocem quoque tollere possum.

Translation:

With raving teeth, I am he who overcomes two-toothed lambs,

Seeking bloody prey and bloody provision;

And with great rage I am also able to destroy the voice.

Click to show riddle solution?

Wolf

Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.

If you're researching/studying this collection, you should also consult this excellent new edition: T. J. Leary, ed. Symphosius: The Aenigmata, An Introduction, Text and Commentary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Textual differences in that edition include:

line 1: vinco > trunco
line 3: rabie > rapiam

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Aldhelm Riddle 33: Lorica

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Roscida me genuit gelido de viscere tellus;

Non sum setigero lanarum vellere facta,

Licia nulla trahunt nec garrula fila resultant

Nec crocea Seres texunt lanugine vermes

Nec radiis carpor duro nec pectine pulsor;

Et tamen en vestis vulgi sermone vocabor.

Spicula non vereor longis exempta faretris.

Translation:

The dewy earth birthed me from frozen innards;

I am not made from the bristly sheep’s wool,

No threads are drawn nor do noisy strings thrum, 

Nor do Chinese silk-worms weave me from golden plant-down, 

I am not plucked from the spinning wheel nor struck by the hard carding comb;

And yet, behold, I am called “clothing” in the vulgar tongue.

I do not fear sharp weapons taken out of long quivers.

Click to show riddle solution?

Mail-coat (armour)

Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.

Tags: riddles latin Aldhelm