I added a page following the Exeter Book Riddles, giving the basic consensus for solutions when available. Some very few are my own suggestions. I also gave a list of correspondences to the ASPR numbering, mine conforms more to Muir’s and Williamson’s. A word of warning: the Baum edition of the Riddles available on Wikisources uses a much different numbering system (though cross-referenced to ASPR). Also many of his solutions are suspect. Strangest is that he seems to think that the dirty imagery of “obscene riddles” are the actual answer, rather than just being riddling misdirection, and having an actual, “polite” answer.

My own answers are offered for #17, #57, #59, & #91. The answer to #75 is Williamson’s.

Also, I finally got around to translating #89 (ASPR #90), the Latin riddle. Not sure why I avoided it for so long. The solution is another matter entirely — I’ll have to do some reading about & thinking about it. Sure was easier back in the day when a scholar could just say any mysterious enigma was just about Christ and be done with it.

Comments

    • It’s not necessary for the poems to work. One thing you should remember is that the titles of the poems were created by editors, and so were not part of the composition or collecting process. Definitely a first editor saw these poems as connected. But they are not adjacent to each other in the manuscript. Also they appear to have very different styles of representation. It’s okay if you think that they do, but the evidence of the connection is scanty.

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