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 code, as with no. 24, in which the term
higoræ– possibly alluding to present-day English “magpie” – is offered.…
3288 words
Citation: Salvador-Bello, Mercedes. "Exeter Book Riddles". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1661, accessed 03 December 2024.]
