CiNii Books - The Old English and Anglo-Latin riddle tradition

Author(s)

- Orchard, Andy

Bibliographic Information

The Old English and Anglo-Latin riddle tradition

edited and translated by Andy Orchard

（Dumbarton Oaks medieval library, 69）

Harvard University Press, 2021

: cloth

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Aichi University of Education Library研究室

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Kansai University Library図

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Note

Bibliography: p. 871-875

Includes index

Summary: "Riddles, wordplay, and enigmatic utterance have been at the heart of English literature for many centuries: if the crossword as a form is only a hundred years old, the principles that underlie its successful solution go back more than a millennium, when anagrams, acrostics, and a variety of word and sound games both within and beyond Old English and Latin, the two literary languages of Anglo-Saxon England, are attested both widely and well. The Anglo-Saxon riddle tradition is rich and reaches back: the demonstrable connection between the Old English material and a literate and learned Latinate tradition only emphasizes the importance of investigating such a link in closer focus. But it also reaches across, connecting what might otherwise seem somewhat trivial texts to a broader tradition that transcends national, temporal, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. Anglo-Saxons evidently wanted to understand the world, to explain it, and perhaps above all, to marvel at its myriad ways. ..."

Description and Table of Contents

Description

What offers over seven hundred witty enigmas in several languages? Answer: The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. Riddles, wordplay, and inscrutable utterances have been at the heart of Western literature for many centuries. Often brief and always delightful, medieval riddles provide insights into the extraordinary and the everyday, connecting the learned and the ribald, the lay and the devout, and the familiar and the imported. Many solutions involve domestic life, including "butter churn" and "chickens." Others like "the harrowing of hell" or "the Pleiades" appeal to an educated elite. Still others, like "the one-eyed seller of garlic," are too absurd to solve: that is part of the game. Riddles are not simply lighthearted amusement. They invite philosophical questions about language and knowledge. Most riddles in this volume are translated from Old English and Latin, but it also includes some from Old Norse-Icelandic. The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition assembles, for the first time ever, an astonishing array of riddles composed before 1200 CE that continue to entertain and puzzle.

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