Riddles

Research Blog

A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer. It was very common in the Middle Ages that the street entertainers would try to come up with a rather inspiring riddle and as a reward they would get paid by the travelers. The oldest recorded riddles are thought to be Babylonian school texts which show no literary polish and the answers to the riddles are not preserved.

Old English riddles are in general short, puzzle-like poems in which the reader is invited to identify an object, animal, natural phenomenon, or process which is described in a mysterious and sometimes playful way. The riddles that survive are found in the Exeter Book. It’s one of the four Poetic Codices written between 975-1025. The exact number of riddles is unknown, and is a matter of scholarly opinion. There are some scholars that claim there are 90 and others as many as 96. It depends on how they choose to separate the text. The riddles cover a fairly broad range of subjects which reflect some of the concerns of life in Anglo-Saxon England. Some riddles depict weaponry and warlike matters where others may relate to life in the monasteries. Several riddles describe aspects of the natural world like natural phenomena, personified animals, and plants. While some riddles describe household objects like farming implements and other accessories of everyday life in a primarily agricultural society.

The riddles, like all puzzles that encourage people to see things in a new or different way, could no doubt play a role in training the mind. Those riddles dealing with scholarly or religious matters must, by the nature of their content, have served a certain educational role. The riddles can perform a reputable intellectual function can be seen in the riddle like qualities found in many examples of Old English Wisdom Literature, such as the Maxims I and II and Solomon and Saturn II. However, the primary purpose of the Old English riddles appears to be to entertain the reader, who is challenged to identify the speaker or, if the unexplained subject is not the speaker, the “creature” described. Sometimes the solution is obvious, in which case the pleasure might arise from the simple charm of seeing a familiar object presented in an unusual, clever, or metaphorical way. Other times, two possible solutions are built parallel to each other, in about a dozen cases the secondary solutions is “obscene”. It’s up to the reader to decide which solution is the “right” one. Some of the riddles’ solutions are lost in obscurity, and it’s important to note that for several of the poems even the commonly accepted solution is by no means certain. The Exeter Book doesn’t provide an answer key.

The majority of the riddles vary in length from about eight lines to over a hundred. Some are considerably shorter, and there are even a few that are only one line long. They are constructed of four-stress lines with at least two of the stresses alliterated. The language tends to be formal, featuring many compound words and kennings, a kind of metaphorical descripition. Within these poetic parameters, however, the riddles vary considerably in literary sophistication and style, from the simple catchword-type riddle which relies on wordplay, through riddles made of straightforward descriptions of the subject’s attributes, to more sophisticated riddles which go beyond simply challenging the reader and portray the object within a framework that leads the reader to consider grander themes or issues.

The Old English riddles are often compared with the Anglo-Latin enigmata poems of Aldhelm, Tatwine and Eusebius, and to a certain extent to their Late Latin predecessor, Symphosius. While the two genres are comparable in that they are both made up of riddles, which often share the same subject matter, the Latin poems differ in tone, focus (more to educate than to entertain) and in the fact that they are presented as coherent collections by known authors. There is no doubt that the enigmata influenced some of the vernacular riddles (numbers 35 and 40, specifically, are direct translations of two of Aldhelm’s poems), but the general extent of this influence is debatable. The similarities that many of the Old English riddles are said to bear to the enigmata might indicate a conscious imitation of these sources, or they might just as easily bespeak the use by writers of both genres of a similar traditional or popular source.

The authorship and dating of the riddles is also largely a matter of scholarly contention. For a period in the nineteenth century, many academics believed that all of the Exeter Book riddles were the work of one eighth-century poet, Cynewulf; this theory has since been almost unanimously discredited, although linguistic clues suggest that some of the riddles do date to the eighth century. The sheer variety of styles, poetic sophistication and subject matter suggest multiple authorship; nevertheless, textual, linguistic and stylistic arguments aside, given the nature of the manuscript evidence, passed to us through the medium of a scribe. It seems unlikely that most specific questions of authorship or dating will ever be answered beyond a doubt.

A popular riddle of Greek Mythology refers to the Sphinx who sat outside Thebes asking passers-by the riddle- “What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?” The one who failed to answer would meet with death. When Oedipus solves the riddle, the sphinx destroys itself. The Ancient Greeks used the riddles to mark the intelligence and creativity of a person.

Uncertain authorship, uncertain dates, uncertain numbers and uncertain solutions -- the Old English riddles are riddles in more ways than one. As they challenge us with their "What am I?", we might honestly reply, "What, indeed?"

I was thinking of comparing Riddles to Lyrics but I'm still deciding and looking up all genres to see what works best. I'm finding it somewhat difficult to find something that is similar to riddles, genre wise. My project is developing slow but I would say smoothly. I'm still looking for more sources as I progress and I started to organize my paper into sections as you suggested in class like origin and themes (which helped out a lot!). Above is a sample but I may change some of it and I may reorganize it better when I gather more material.