Exeter Book Riddles 48 and 59 and the Malmesbury Ciborium

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-150
Author(s):  
Andrew Breeze
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Exeter Book ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Recent Discussion ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Early English

Most commentators on Riddles 48 and 59 in the tenth-century Exeter Book relate them to church plate, the solution supposedly being a gold paten or chalice or pyx. Yet these answers are not compelling. Problems remain. Recent discussion of the Malmesbury Ciborium and other twelfth-century ciboria in London or New York now permits a fresh approach. The solution to both Old English riddles will be ciborium, a vessel of precious metal used to contain consecrated wafers or hosts at the eucharist. The Malmesbury Ciborium and similar pieces make this clear. Round and made of gold, they had a shorter and squatter outline than a chalice; they possessed lids, inscriptions, and representations of Bible scenes (the Crucifixion amongst them); they were yet larger than a pyx (used not in services but to carry a few wafers only, as on visits to the sick). These aspects parallel those of the object in the two riddles: a ring-like item of gold which is gazed upon and revered by people in a hall, which makes no noise and yet conveys a message of salvation, and which (in the second riddle) displays Christ’s wounds. If this analysis is sound, it deepens understanding of early English poetry. It also informs us on Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths, who produced magnificent works of art (as the literary sources prove) now lost, the gold having long been melted down for the purpose of exchange or as loot. Study of the two poems indicates as well how philologists and experts on material culture can work together, especially for the Exeter Book’s other riddles.

On Translating Anglo-Saxon Poetry

PMLA ◽  
1898 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 286-296
Author(s):  
Edward Fulton
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Final Conclusion ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
English Verse ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Early English

What verse to use in translating Anglo-Saxon poetry is a question, which, ever since Anglo-Saxon poetry has been thought worth translating, has been discussed over and over again, but unfortunately with as yet no final conclusion. The tendency, however, both among those who have written upon the subject and those who have tried their hand at translating, is decidedly in favor of a more or less close imitation of the original metre. Professor F. B. Gummere, in an article on “The Translation of Beowulf and the Relations of Ancient and Modern English Verse,” published in the American Journal of Philology, Vol. vii (1886), strongly advocates imitating the A.-S. metre. Professor J. M. Garnett, in a paper read before this Association in 1890, sides with him, recanting a previously held belief in the superiority of blank verse. Of the various translations which imitate the A.-S. metre, the most successful, undoubtedly, is the Beowulf of Dr. John Leslie Hall, which appeared in 1892. Stopford Brooke, in his History of Early English Literature, also declares his belief in imitations of the original metre, though in his translations he does not always carry out his beliefs. He lays down the rule—and a very good rule it is—that translations of poetry “should always endeavour to have the musical movement of poetry, and to obey the laws of the verse they translate.” For translating A.-S. poetry, blank verse, he thinks, is out of the question; “ it fails in the elasticity which a translation of Anglo-Saxon poetry requires, and in itself is too stately, even in its feminine dramatic forms, to represent the cantering movement of Old English verse. Moreover, it is weighted with the sound of Shakspere, Milton, or Tennyson, and this association takes the reader away from the atmosphere of Early English poetry.”

scholarly journals Old English Power Structure in the Warlike Nature in Riddles no. 3, no, 29, no. 50 from the Exeter Book

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-436
Author(s):  
Herditya Wahyu Widodo
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Exeter Book ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Cultural Interpretation ◽  
Old English Poetry ◽  
Power Hierarchy

Abstract: This study focuses on Old English nature-themed riddle texts from the Exeter Book, analyzing the natural imageries that are significant in investigating how the literary content of Old English riddles, as accepted forms of poetry, reveals the Anglo-Saxon culture of their original authors. I focus on the power structure in Anglo-Saxon society revealed in the riddles, by analyzing the topic of warlike nature in them, focusing on the riddles no. 3, “Storm”, no. 29 “Sun and Moon,” and no. 50, “Fire.” Natural experience described in these riddles is rendered by the Anglo-Saxons to reflect power hierarchy between male and female, servant and master, and human with God.  The Anglo-Saxon riddles identify and assign the potent warlike attributes and actions of nature, and assign them to the more powerful factions (God, Master, Male) over the weaker factions (Humans, Servants, Female). This is done by the authors as an acceptable cultural interpretation of these natural phenomena, put in the riddles to make it possible for the riddles’ intended Anglo-Saxon audience as clues to arrive at a culturally agreeable answer. Keywords: old English, old English riddles, natural imagery, old English poetry, war imagery Abstrak: Studi ini berfokus pada teks teka-teki (Riddles) Inggris Kuno (Old English) bertema alam dari the Exeter Book, dengan menganalisa imaji alam yang signifikan, untuk mengetahui bagaimana teka-teki Inggris Kuno, sebagai salah satu karya sastra berbentuk puisi, mengungkapkan budaya Anglo-Saxon dari penulis aslinya. Saya berfokus pada struktur kekuasaan (power structure) dalam masyarakat Anglo-Saxon yang terungkap dalam teks teka-teki, dengan menganalisis topik sifat suka perang di pada teka-teki no. 3, "Badai", no. 29 “Matahari dan Bulan,” dan no. 50, "Api." Pengalaman hidup mengenai alam digambarkan dalam teka-teki ini oleh para penulis Anglo-Saxon dengan mencerminkan hierarki kekuasaan antara laki-laki dan perempuan, hamba dan tuan, dan manusia dengan Tuhan. Teka-teki Anglo-Saxon mengidentifikasi dan menetapkan atribut dan tindakan alam yang suka berperang (warlike) kepada faksi yang lebih kuat (Dewa, Tuan, Laki-Laki) di atas faksi yang lebih lemah (Manusia, Pelayan, Wanita). Hal ini dilakukan oleh para penulis sebagai interpretasi budaya atas fenomena alam yang mereka lihat, dan dimasukkan ke dalam teka-teki untuk memungkinkan pembaca Anglo-Saxon sebagai petunjuk untuk sampai pada jawaban yang dapat diterima secara budaya. Kata kunci: old English, Inggris kuno, teka-teki Inggris kuno, imaji alam, puisi Inggris kuno, imaji perang

The Study of Anglo-Saxon Poetry in the Victorian Period

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-188
Author(s):  
M. J. Toswell
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Old English ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Exeter Book ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
Learned Societies ◽  
First Editions ◽  
Vercelli Book

The Victorians produced the first editions of Anglo-Saxon poetry in English, and began the serious study of these materials in England. John Josias Conybeare showed the way, locating and editing selected pieces of Old English poetry with a translation. John Mitchell Kemble, from the famous Irish acting family, chose a different career as an academic and antiquarian, though never with a permanent post. He produced the first edition of Beowulf, and a much better revision within a few years. Benjamin Thorpe prepared editions of four different poetic codices (missing only the Vercelli Book, of the important five manuscripts, because it was not discovered until the twentieth century): the Paris Psalter, the Junius Manuscript, the Exeter Book, and Beowulf. Finally, Frederick Furnivall established many learned societies and successfully established the Oxford English Dictionary.

scholarly journals Exeter Book Riddle 95: ‘The Sun’, a New Solution

2019 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
pp. 612-638
Author(s):  
Dieter Bitterli
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Exeter Book ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
English Verse ◽  
Isidore Of Seville ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

Abstract Elusive and fraught with textual difficulties, Riddle 95, the ‘last’ of the Old English verse riddles preserved in the tenth-century Exeter Book, has long baffled modern readers as one of a handful of thorny items in the collection that have so far defied solution. ‘Book’ is the answer that has found most acceptance with critics in the past, yet the speaking subject of Riddle 95 is unlike anything described in those items of the collection that actually deal with writing and the tools of the monastic scriptorium. Rather, the linguistic and thematic parallels between Riddle 95 on the one hand, and the cosmological riddles and poems in the Exeter Book on the other, strongly suggest that the subject of Riddle 95 is the sun, a frequent topic of early medieval enigmatography. The poem obliquely relates how the rising sun installs itself in the sky to shed its welcome light upon the earth before it sets and vanishes from sight, completing its daily orbit along unknown paths. The main clues helping to secure the solution ‘sun’ are based upon what was known in Anglo-Saxon England about the solar course and the planetary motions, especially from the astronomical writings of Isidore of Seville and Bede. Further evidence is provided by several analogues in the Anglo-Latin riddle tradition, including the Enigmata of Aldhelm and his followers.

scholarly journals Postcolonial Elements in Early English Poetry

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Mohamed Kamel Abdel-Daem
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Religious Devotion ◽  
English Identity ◽  
Early English ◽  
The Impact

In this article, the writer highlights certain elements in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman verse, that can unsurprisingly be a precursor of postcolonial writing. These marks are: heroic spirit, religious devotion, chivalric pride and elegiac vein. All these topics were nothing but aids to the early English poets' attempt to coin a unified English identity. This study manifestly assumes that nineteenth and twentieth century, imperial England had once been a colonized nation that produced postcolonial culture and literature. This article proposes that postcolonialism is not restricted just to modern times; postcolonial literature often emerged where conflicts occurred. The study also hints at the impact of postcolonial elements( race, religion, language) on English poetry.

The origin of Standard Old English and Æthelwold's school at Winchester

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 63-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Gneuss
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The People ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Of Greece

‘In literary culture’, Sir James Murray has said, ‘the Normans were about as far behind the people whom they conquered as the Romans were when they made themselves masters of Greece.’ Indeed when the Normans set foot on English soil Anglo-Saxon England was in possession not only of a remarkable literature but also of a highly developed written standard language, known and used in all regions of the country. Most of our Old English manuscripts were written in the late tenth century and in the eleventh in a form of English – although not always quite pure – which the grammarians call late West Saxon. This form of the language is by no means just a dialect, any more than its literature is merely the literary product of a dialect. This fact is first brought home to us when we examine the negative evidence – the rareness before the end of the tenth century of texts in dialects other than West Saxon and their almost complete absence after this time, a state of affairs for which various explanations might be found, historical factors among others. Considerably more important, however, is a positive criterion: texts in this late West Saxon were written and read in other parts of the country too, in Kent (Canterbury), in Mercia (Worcester) and indeed even in Northumbria (York). Moreover, texts which had originally been written in Anglian were transcribed into late West Saxon, as was a large part of Old English poetry. There can be no doubt: in our Old English texts of the eleventh century we are dealing with a standard literary language which, although based on a dialectal foundation, had extended its domain beyond the borders of this dialect.

Romans, Britons, and the Construction of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Identity

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Michael D.J. Bintley
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Group Cooperation ◽  
Early English ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
English Culture

This chapter argues that early English writing and material culture manipulated and manufactured British and Roman identities in the formation of an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ identity between the eighth and eleventh centuries. Historical and literary works present a narrative in which the British were conquered or pushed to the fringes of society, despite the coexistence of ample evidence for inter-group cooperation and collaboration. At the same time, other cultural productions sought to emphasize the incorporation—and continuation—of various aspects of Romanitas. Interrogating a range of textual and material evidence, this chapter presents an overview of the various approaches to ‘British’ and ‘Roman’ identity that are visible in early English culture. It gives special consideration to one of the most prominent stages on which this negotiation took place: the former towns of Roman Britain.

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-122
Author(s):  
Book Reviews
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Silicon Valley ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Transit Migration

Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley by Christian Zlolniski Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press, 2006 ISBN 0520246438, 249 pp.The Archaeology of Xenitia: Greek Immigration and Material Culture Ed. by Kostis Kourelis Athens: Gennadius Library, 2008 ISBN 978-960-86960-6-8, 104 pp.  Transit Migration: The Missing Link between Emigration and Settlement by Aspasia Papadopoulou-Kourkoula New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 ISBN 0-230-55533-0, 177 pp.How Professors Think: Inside The Curious World of Academic Judgment, 1st Edition by Michele Lamont Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009 ISBN: 978-0674032668, 336 pp.

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