Say What I Am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book and the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition

Description

Perhaps the most enigmatic cultural artifacts that survive from the Anglo-Saxon period are the Old English riddle poems that were preserved in the tenth century Exeter Book manuscript. Clever, challenging, and notoriously obscure, the riddles have fascinated readers for centuries and provided crucial insight into the period. In 'Say What I Am Called', Dieter Bitterli takes a fresh look at the riddles by examining them in the context of earlier Anglo-Latin riddles. Bitterli argues that there is a vigorous common tradition between Anglo-Latin and Old English riddles and details how the contents of the Exeter Book emulate and reassess their Latin predecessors while also expanding their literary and formal conventions. The book also considers the ways in which convention and content relate to writing in a vernacular language. A rich and illuminating work that is as intriguing as the riddles themselves, 'Say What I Am Called' is a rewarding study of some of the most interesting works from the Anglo-Saxon period. Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations and Symbols xi Introduction 3 PART I: CONTEXTS 1. Latin Riddling and the Vernacular 13 The House and the Guest (Riddle 85) 14 Animal Worlds 18 Beasts of Burden (Riddles 12, 38, and 72) 26 2. Tell-Tale Birds: The Etymological Principle 35 Singing Feathers (Riddle 7) 38 Words and Things 44 Speaking in Tongues (Riddle 8) 46 3. Crossings: Combinatorial and Numerical Riddles 57 The Warriors Embark (Riddle 22) 59 Numerical Monsters (Riddles 86 and 36) 68 Dead Ends (Riddle 90) 74 PART II: CODES 4. Runic Strategies 83 Logographic versus Alphabetic 83 Sea Horses (Riddles 19 and 64) 86 The Barking Bird (Riddle 24) 91 5. Bits and Pieces 98 Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (Riddle 58) 98 Covered Tracks (Riddle 75) 105 Loose Ends 110 6. Letter Games 114 Ten in All (Riddle 13) 115 Fowl Play (Riddle 42) 121 Men at Wine 124 PART III: TOOLS 7. Silent Speech 135 Scribal Riddles 135 The Mouthless Messenger (Riddle 60) 137 The Struggling Warrior (Riddle 51) 145 8. Beasts of Battle 151 The Missing Brother (Riddle 88) 152 The Lost Lord (Riddle 93) 157 Modes 163 9. The Flesh Made Word 170 Famous, Useful, and Holy (Riddle 26) 171 Under My Skin (Riddle 28) 178 Excarnation 188 10. Coda 191 The Thievish Guest (Riddle 47) 191 Bibliography 195 Index 213