Week 14

Question 1

Anglo-Saxon riddles

Answer 1

1. Forced people to think
2. Used to show off verbal and lexical skill
3. Often written in 1st person
4. Don’t come with answers
5. More sexual than Latin ones

Question 2

What is mysterious about the Exeter Book riddles?

Answer 2

1. Don’t come with answers
2. We don’t know how many there were
3. Not sure about their purpose (education, entertainment)

Question 3

Features of Riddles

Answer 3

1. Metaphoric: anything can be alive
2. Metamorphic: things transform
3. Ambiguous: double/triple meanings for words
4. Prosopopoeia: inanimate objects get a voice
5. Direct questioning: very clear ending like ‘guess’ or ‘say my name’
6. Double entendre: a lot have penis as possible answer
7. Cryptographic: rely on knowledge of secret script > runes

Question 4

Runes

Answer 4

1. Very angular
2. Germanic alphabet
3. Used to inscribe short messages on stone
4. Spells

Question 5

Two Runic alphabets

Answer 5

Futhark (Scandinavian)
Futhorc (Anglo-Saxon)

Question 6

Functions of Runes

Answer 6

1. Possession
2. Description
3. Magic spells

Question 7

ᚦ

Answer 7

Thorn, makes a ‘th’ sound

Question 8

ᚹ

Answer 8

Wyn, w sound

Question 9

What were Rune poems used for?

Answer 9

Testing:
1. Mental ability
2. Knowledge of words
3. Knowledge of runes

Question 10

Three important works of art from the Anglo-Saxon period

Answer 10

1. Ruthwell Cross
2. Franks Casket
3. Stafforshire Hoard

Question 11

Ruthwell Cross characteristics and relation to literature

Answer 11

Characteristics:
1. Stone cross found inside a church in Scotland
2. 5.5m high
3. Many decorations
4. Runic inscriptions

Literature:
1. About Christ on cross ‘Dream of the Rood’
2. Lines of the cross with similarities to 8th c. poem ‘the dream of the rood’
3. Came to exist two centuries before it was written in the manuscript we now have

Question 12

Franks Casket: features and literary relevance

Answer 12

Features:
1. Dated c. 700
2. Made of whale bone
3. Tiny
4. Both OE and Latin inscriptions (Runes and Latin alphabet)
5. Multicultural scenes (4 cultures; Roman, Jewish, Christian and Germanic tradition)

Literary relevance:
1. Christian imagery (3 wise men from the east to visit baby Jesus).
2. Germanic imagery (Welund got in trouble, held captive by Nithad)
* These two pictures side by side pose a riddle; Good king Christ, Bad king Nithad!

Question 13

Staffordshire Hoard: features and riddle

Answer 13

Features:
1. Found by amateur archaeologist
2. Largest collection from around year 700 (lots of gold, jewels)
3. War booty, burial, ritual deposit?

Riddle: why was it deposited? All pieces were broken (war, burial, ritual deposit, safekeeping?)

Question 14

What are some Modern English words that stem from OE?

Answer 14

Friendly, this, great, England, middle.

Question 15

Vowel and diphthong pronunciation

Answer 15

/a/ father
/æ/ cat
/e/ fate
/i/ feet
/o/ boat
/u/ tool
/y/ über
/ie/ hear

/eo/
/ea/

Question 16

Pronunciation of /f/ /s/ /θ/

Answer 16

Voiced [v] when in between vowels, same for the others.

Question 17

Stemvowel changes of long vowels

Answer 17

/ī/ (wīf) > /aɪ/ (price)
/ā/ (stān) > /əʊ/ (goat)
/ē/ (fēt) > /I:/ (feet)
/ō/ (smōÞ) > /u:/ (smooth)
/ū/ (hūs) > /au/ (house)
/ǣ/ (rǣdan) > /i:/ (read)

Question 18

Anglo-Latin riddles aspects (why written)

Answer 18

Important aspect of Anglo-Saxon riddles.

1. Most of these were written by scholars as it was their pastime.
2. It was a way of showing off your skills and a way to teach students.
3. There were more riddles in Latin than in Old English.

In these riddles, the speaker speaks in first person. Answers are almost always inanimate things.