Exeter Book Riddles

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Mercedes Salvador-Bello (Universidad de Sevilla)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.970

Places

England (Location)

Genres and Modes

Aphorisms/ Maxims/ Proverbs

Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS. 3501 – better known as the Exeter Book (see separate entry) – contains the only medieval collection of English vernacular riddles that has come down to us. The riddles amount to nearly one hundred and are all in Old English with the exception of a single Latin piece (no. 90; here and elsewhere I follow Krapp and Dobbie's standard numbering and edition). There are no solutions accompanying the texts, as was also quite common in Latin riddling, and this has considerably complicated the study of some of the pieces whose solving has been particularly elusive. However, there are some riddles whose answers are provided by means of a runic …

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3288 words

Citation: Salvador-Bello, Mercedes. "Exeter Book Riddles". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 April 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1661, accessed 27 November 2024.]

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Exeter Book Riddles

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

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