Riddles (Exeter Book)
摘要
The Old English Riddles (c. 965–975) is a collection of over 90 literary riddles found in the Codex Exoniensis (“the Exeter Book”) in Exeter, Cathedral Library MS. 3501. The Old English riddles are literary games that rely on wordplay and misdirection while providing a glimpse into the culture of Anglo-Saxon England. Several sexual riddles suggest feminine experience, and many of the riddles provide various representations of the feminine in human female figures and personifications of nonhuman elements as feminine. While belonging to a larger Latin tradition, these riddles constitute the only Old English vernacular collection that survives from the early Middle Ages.