Anglo-Saxon riddles
- Forced people to think
- Used to show off verbal and lexical skill
- Often written in 1st person
- Don’t come with answers
- More sexual than Latin ones
What is mysterious about the Exeter Book riddles?
- Don’t come with answers
- We don’t know how many there were
- Not sure about their purpose (education, entertainment)
Features of Riddles
- Metaphoric: anything can be alive
- Metamorphic: things transform
- Ambiguous: double/triple meanings for words
- Prosopopoeia: inanimate objects get a voice
- Direct questioning: very clear ending like ‘guess’ or ‘say my name’
- Double entendre: a lot have penis as possible answer
- Cryptographic: rely on knowledge of secret script > runes
Runes
- Very angular
- Germanic alphabet
- Used to inscribe short messages on stone
- Spells
Two Runic alphabets
Futhark (Scandinavian)
Futhorc (Anglo-Saxon)
Functions of Runes
- Possession
- Description
- Magic spells
ᚦ
Thorn, makes a ‘th’ sound
ᚹ
Wyn, w sound
What were Rune poems used for?
Testing:
1. Mental ability
2. Knowledge of words
3. Knowledge of runes
Three important works of art from the Anglo-Saxon period
- Ruthwell Cross
- Franks Casket
- Stafforshire Hoard
Ruthwell Cross characteristics and relation to literature
Characteristics:
1. Stone cross found inside a church in Scotland
2. 5.5m high
3. Many decorations
4. Runic inscriptions
Literature:
1. About Christ on cross ‘Dream of the Rood’
2. Lines of the cross with similarities to 8th c. poem ‘the dream of the rood’
3. Came to exist two centuries before it was written in the manuscript we now have
Franks Casket: features and literary relevance
Features:
1. Dated c. 700
2. Made of whale bone
3. Tiny
4. Both OE and Latin inscriptions (Runes and Latin alphabet)
5. Multicultural scenes (4 cultures; Roman, Jewish, Christian and Germanic tradition)
Literary relevance:
1. Christian imagery (3 wise men from the east to visit baby Jesus).
2. Germanic imagery (Welund got in trouble, held captive by Nithad)
* These two pictures side by side pose a riddle; Good king Christ, Bad king Nithad!
Staffordshire Hoard: features and riddle
Features:
1. Found by amateur archaeologist
2. Largest collection from around year 700 (lots of gold, jewels)
3. War booty, burial, ritual deposit?
Riddle: why was it deposited? All pieces were broken (war, burial, ritual deposit, safekeeping?)
What are some Modern English words that stem from OE?
Friendly, this, great, England, middle.
Vowel and diphthong pronunciation
/a/ father
/æ/ cat
/e/ fate
/i/ feet
/o/ boat
/u/ tool
/y/ über
/ie/ hear
/eo/
/ea/
Pronunciation of /f/ /s/ /θ/
Voiced [v] when in between vowels, same for the others.
Stemvowel changes of long vowels
/ī/ (wīf) > /aɪ/ (price)
/ā/ (stān) > /əʊ/ (goat)
/ē/ (fēt) > /I:/ (feet)
/ō/ (smōÞ) > /u:/ (smooth)
/ū/ (hūs) > /au/ (house)
/ǣ/ (rǣdan) > /i:/ (read)
Anglo-Latin riddles aspects (why written)
Important aspect of Anglo-Saxon riddles.
- Most of these were written by scholars as it was their pastime.
- It was a way of showing off your skills and a way to teach students.
- There were more riddles in Latin than in Old English.
In these riddles, the speaker speaks in first person. Answers are almost always inanimate things.
