The Great Book of Riddles: 250 Magnificent Riddles, Puzzles and Brain Teasers (The Great Books Series 1)

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I am wonderful help to women, The hope of something to come. I harm No citizen except my slayer. Rooted I stand on a high bed. I am shaggy below. Sometimes the beautiful Peasant's daughter, an eager-armed, Proud woman grabs my body, Rushes my red skin, holds me hard, Claims my head. The curly-haired Woman who catches me fast will feel Our meeting. Her eye will be wet. [16] Trans. by Craig Williamson, A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs (1982)

Included here are facsimiles, editions, and translations that include a significant proportion of texts from the Exeter Book. Jacqueline Fay, ‘Becoming an Onion: The Extra-Human Nature of Genital Difference in the Old English Riddling and Medical Traditions’, English Studies, 101 (2020), 60-78 (p. 64); doi: 10.1080/0013838X.2020.1708083. The Exeter Book riddles are a fragmentary collection of verse riddles in Old English found in the later tenth-century anthology of Old English poetry known as the Exeter Book. Today standing at around ninety-four (scholars debate precisely how many there are because divisions between poems are not always clear), the Exeter Book riddles account for almost all the riddles attested in Old English, and a major component of the otherwise mostly Latin corpus of riddles from early medieval England. Williamson, Craig (1977), The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, pp.3–28, ISBN 0-8078-1272-2Crossley-Holland, Kevin (1982). The Anglo-Saxon World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953871-3. Anthology of Old English poetry and prose, featuring poems from the Exeter Book.

Five men are going to church. It starts to rain, and four of the men begin to run. When they arrive at the church, the four men who ran are soaking wet, whereas the fifth man, who didn’t run, is completely dry. How is this possible? Fell, Christine (2007). "Perceptions of Transience". In Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp.172–89. ISBN 978-0-521-37794-2. While the Exeter Book was found in a cathedral library, and while it is clear that religious scribes worked on the riddles, not all of the riddles in the book are religiously themed. Many of the answers to the riddles are everyday, common objects. There are also many double entendres, which can lead to an answer that is obscene. One example of this is Riddle 23/25: If you’d like to know the answers to the riddles, scroll to the end, but see if you can guess first!Q: I have 10 books and I label them with their number. I take seven out to read. How many books are left? A: 9! You have taken the book with the label seven! What am I? A: Hyphen. The first two lines yield high-fen. A hyphen is used by a writer to tie (or cramp) two words together. Q: A color is seen on a stoplight, an item you use to eliminate the darkness. What comic book character is it? A: Green Lantern. Q: My life is often a volume of grief, your help is needed to turn a new leaf. Stiff is my spine and my body is pale, but I’m always ready to tell a tale. John Barleycorn, Wine cask, Beer, Ale, Mead, Harp, Stringed instrument, Tortoise lyre, Yew horn, Barrow, Trial of soul, Pattern-welded sword, Parchment, Biblical codex

Aside from eight leaves added to the codex after it was written, the Exeter Book consists entirely of poetry. However, unlike the Junius manuscript, which is dedicated to biblically inspired works, the Exeter Book is noted for the unmatched diversity of genres among its contents, as well as their generally high level of poetic quality. [12] Greg Delanty, Seamus Heaney and Michael Matto, The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation (New York: Norton, 2010)

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In 2016, UNESCO recognized the book as "the foundation volume of English literature, one of the world's principal cultural artefacts". [9] [10] [11] History [ edit ] a b c d e f g h i j k l Shippey, Tom (2017). The Complete Old English Poems. Translated by Williamson, Craig. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. x-xi, 299-302. ISBN 978-0-8122-9321-0. Muir, Bernard J., ed. (2000). The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501 (2nded.). Exeter: University of Exeter Press. ISBN 0-85989-630-7. Thorpe, Benjamin (1842). Codex Exoniensis: A Collection of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, from a Manuscript in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. London: The Society of Antiquaries of London. OCLC 562461120. a b Alexander, Michael (2008). "Introduction". The First Poems in English. London: Penguin Books. p.xvii. ISBN 9780140433784.