What are these texts? They’re riddles in Old English. In some an object speaks about itself (a technique known by the Greek word prosopopoeia), while others are told by an observer, marvelling at the strangeness of the thing they’re describing. These riddles invite us to search for meaning, play with words, and take pleasure in an eventual recognition. Sometimes the solution is obvious, sometimes ridiculous, but along the way they investigate the natural world and its transformations; a whole spectrum of emotions; gender and hierarchy; the power of language; death and what comes after; and the lives of objects – not to mention jokes about sex. 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. [18] Folios a b c Gameson, Richard (December 1996). "The origin of the Exeter Book of Old English poetry". Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press. 25: 135–185. doi: 10.1017/S0263675100001988. ISSN 1474-0532. S2CID 162992373. The Buoyant Armiger Salyn Sarethi in Ghostgate claims that we have no courtesy. Frald the White asked me to challenge Salyn Sarethi to a contest of wit, poetry, and honor.

If you are running a race, and you overtake the person in second place, what place do you move into? Introduction to and audio extracts from the different languages spoken in Britain and Ireland in the early Middle Ages. About the ContributorsCupping-glass, Iron Helmet, Iron Shield, Bronze Shield, Sword or Dagger, Sword-hilt, Iron Ore, Retainer

a b Alexander, Michael (2008). "Introduction". The First Poems in English. London: Penguin Books. p.xvii. ISBN 9780140433784.A. N. Doane, "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), pp. 45-65. Marsden, Richard (2015), The Cambridge Old English Reader (2nded.), doi: 10.1017/CBO9781107295209, ISBN 9781107295209 Krapp, George Philip; Dobbie, Elliot Van Kirk, eds. (1936). The Exeter Book. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. Vol.III. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08767-5. Q: Why did everybody like to go out to eat with the librarian? A: She could always book a reservation. 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. [16] Trans. by Craig Williamson, A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs (1982)

What am I? A: Hyphen. The first two lines yield high-fen. A hyphen is used by a writer to tie (or cramp) two words together. I AM A WIFE AND MOM TO 5 KIDS. I AM A FAMILY LIFE EDUCATOR WITH MY DEGREE IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY STUDIES. I HAVE 6+ YEARS OF HANDS ON EXPERIENCE HELPING FAMILIES CONNECT AND BUILD LONG-LASTING CONNECTIONS. a b c d e f g h i j k l Shippey, Tom (2017). The Complete Old English Poems. Translated by Williamson, Craig. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. x-xi, 299-302. ISBN 978-0-8122-9321-0. 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. There are two glasses. One contains water, and the other contains an equal quantity of wine. A teaspoon of water is removed and mixed into the glass of wine. A teaspoon of the wine-water mixture is then removed and mixed into the glass of water. Which of the mixtures is now purer?John D. Niles, Old English Enigmatic Poems and the Play of the Texts, Studies in the early Middle Ages, 13 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006). Q: I am the king’s, given by the people; Used by the king, on the people who gave him; everyone obeys him because he has me. Matto, Michael; Delanty, Greg (2011). The Word Exchange. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0393342413. Anthology of Old English poetry, featuring many of the texts from the Exeter Book. Rachel A. Burns, 'Spirits and Skins: The Sceapheord of Exeter Book Riddle 13 and Holy Labour', The Review of English Studies (2022), doi: 10.1093/res/hgab086.