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Anglo-Saxon Riddles Explained

1) Three Anglo-Saxon riddles are presented without their answers for the reader to solve. 2) The first riddle describes something that grows in a corner, swells, and has a covering that a woman grabs and covers with her hands and a garment. 3) The second riddle is about a wondrous creature that is useful to neighbors but injures none except its slayer. It has a very high foundation and stands in a bed. 4) The third riddle refers to something that is worthy to men, found brought from groves and hills, and carried by wings by day under a roof's cover before being bathed by a man.

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598 views1 page

Anglo-Saxon Riddles Explained

1) Three Anglo-Saxon riddles are presented without their answers for the reader to solve. 2) The first riddle describes something that grows in a corner, swells, and has a covering that a woman grabs and covers with her hands and a garment. 3) The second riddle is about a wondrous creature that is useful to neighbors but injures none except its slayer. It has a very high foundation and stands in a bed. 4) The third riddle refers to something that is worthy to men, found brought from groves and hills, and carried by wings by day under a roof's cover before being bathed by a man.

Uploaded by

kimmy1977
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Anglo-Saxon Riddles: Presents a series of Anglo-Saxon riddles with their solutions and translations for amusement and educational purposes.

ANGLO-SAXON RIDDLES

Here's a fun party game for the mead-hall that gives you a sense of Anglo-Saxon hilarity. The translations are mine, so that the clunky literalism is preserved. There is no list of upside-down answers at the end of the Exeter Book where these riddles are found; answers have been reached by scholarly consensus. This may be the general character of Anglo-Saxon humor, but fortunately it's not the height. (Note: the answers to the second and third below are purportedly not what you're being led to think.) #25 Ic eom weor werum, wide funden brungen of bearwum ond of burghleoum of denum ond of durum. Dges mec wgun fere on lifte feredon mid liste under hrofes hleo. Hle mec sian baedan in bydene. Nu ic eom bindere ond swingere sona weorpe esne to eoran hwilum ealdne ceorl. Sona t onfinde se e mec feh ongean ond wi maegenisan minre genste t he hrycge sceal hrusan secan gif he unrdes r ne geswice strengo bistolen strong on sprce mgene binumen; nah his modes geweald fota ne folma. Frige hwt ic hatte e on eor an swa esnas binde dole fter dyntum be dges leohte. #23 Ic eom wunderlicu wiht wifum on hyhte neahbuendum nyt; ngum scee burgsittendra nymthe bonan anum. Staol min is steapheah stonde ic on bedde neoan ruh nathwr. Nee hwilum ful cyrtenu ceorles dohtor modwlonc meowle t heo on mec gripe rse mec on reodne reafath min heafod fege mec on fsten. Fele sona mines gemotes seo e mec nearwa wif wundenlocc. Wt bi t eage. #43 Ic on wincle gefrgn weaxan nathwt indan ond unian ecene hebban on t banlease bryd grapode hygewlonc hondum hrgle theahte rindende ing eodnes dohtor. I have learned that something grows in the corner, swells and expands, has a covering; on that boneless thing a woman grasps around with hands, with a garment the lord's daughter covered the swollen thing. I am a wondrous creature, a joy to women, useful to neighbors; not any citizens do I injure, except my slayer. Very high is my foundation. I stand in a bed, hair underneath somewhere. Sometimes ventures a fully beautiful churl's daughter, licentious maid, that she grabs onto me, rushes me to the redness, ravages my head, fixes me in confinement. She soon feels my meeting, she who forced me in, the curly-haired woman. Wet is her eye. I am worthy to men, widely found brought from groves and from mountainslopes, from valleys and from hills. By day wings carried me in the air, travelled with skill under the roof's cover. A man then bathed me in a tub. Now I am a binder and scourge, soon throw a man to earth, sometimes an old churl. Soon he will find, he who struggles against me, and with violence contends with mine, that he on his back shall seek the earth, if he previously desists not from folly, deprived of strength, powerful in speech, deprived of might; he has not his mind's power in feet nor hands. Ask what I am called, who on earth binds such men, the foolish, from blows by day's light.

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