Riddling and Reading: Iconicity and Logogriphs in Exeter Book Riddles 23 and 45
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Winfried Rudolf
Abstract
Literary riddles have enjoyed a reputation as valuable teaching tools of grammar, logic and rhetoric since Classical Antiquity. Alongside the typical ambiguity which a good riddle strives to generate through polysemy and metaphor, medieval riddles create further semantic uncertainty through the peculiarities of their handwritten form, such as the use of rare graphemes and inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, or word separation. This paper traces logogriphs, iconicity, orthographic and syntactic ambiguities in selected Old English riddles and their relevance for the riddling and reading techniques of their contemporary users. It presents an iconic clue for Exeter Book Riddle 23 and a new spectrum of solutions for Riddle 45, revealed here by means of grammatical, logogriphical, and etymological evidence. The latter is used as a case in point to demonstrate the didactic value of riddles in teaching medieval typology and exegesis. It suggests a palaeographical, etymological and, above all, theological reassessment of the riddles written in Old English.
© 2012 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Dialect and Word Choice in Old English: Two Case Studies with Old English Perception Verbs
- Riddling and Reading: Iconicity and Logogriphs in Exeter Book Riddles 23 and 45
- Zum Status des Onset-Prinzips im Altenglischen
- The Sequence <Bęæu> in The Baconsthorpe Runic Inscription
- Alexander and Dindimus (Ms Bodley 264), Line 537: a New Reading and Interpretation
- Edgar W. Schneider, English Around the World
- Exploring Second-Language Varieties Of English And Learner Englishes: Bridging A Paradigm Gap
- Marco Schilk. Structural Nativization in Indian English Lexicogrammar.
- Ilka Mindt. Adjective Complementation. An Empirical Study of Adjectives Followed by that-Clauses
- The Material Culture of Daily Living in the Anglo-Saxon World
- Matthias Eitelmann. Beowulfes Beorh: Das altenglische Beowulf-Epos als kultureller Gedächtnisspeicher.
- Roy M. Liuzza. Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: An Edition and Translation of Texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii.
- Dana Oswald. Monsters, Gender, and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature. Gender in the Middle Ages 5
- Kathy Cawsey. Twentieth-Century Chaucer Criticism: Reading Audiences
- Jeremy Black. London: A History. Lancaster: Carnegie
- A History of British Drama: Genres – Developments – Model Interpretations
- Sarah Säckel. Jokes Don’t Jump from Nowhere: Comic Dialogism in P.G. Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ Novels
- Birgit Däwes. Ground Zero Fiction. History, Memory, and Representation in the American 9/11 Novel
- The Gordon Riots. Politics, Culture and Insurrection in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain
- Spatial Representations of British Identities
- The Literature of Melancholia: Early Modern to Postmodern
- Birgit Capelle. Time in American and East Asian Thinking: A Comparative Study of Temporality in American Transcendentalism, Pragmatism, and (Zen) Buddhist Thought
- Global Realignments and the Canadian Nation in the Third Millennium
- Ute Berns. Science, Politics, and Friendship in the Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes
- EINGEGANGENE SCHRIFTEN
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Dialect and Word Choice in Old English: Two Case Studies with Old English Perception Verbs
- Riddling and Reading: Iconicity and Logogriphs in Exeter Book Riddles 23 and 45
- Zum Status des Onset-Prinzips im Altenglischen
- The Sequence <Bęæu> in The Baconsthorpe Runic Inscription
- Alexander and Dindimus (Ms Bodley 264), Line 537: a New Reading and Interpretation
- Edgar W. Schneider, English Around the World
- Exploring Second-Language Varieties Of English And Learner Englishes: Bridging A Paradigm Gap
- Marco Schilk. Structural Nativization in Indian English Lexicogrammar.
- Ilka Mindt. Adjective Complementation. An Empirical Study of Adjectives Followed by that-Clauses
- The Material Culture of Daily Living in the Anglo-Saxon World
- Matthias Eitelmann. Beowulfes Beorh: Das altenglische Beowulf-Epos als kultureller Gedächtnisspeicher.
- Roy M. Liuzza. Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: An Edition and Translation of Texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii.
- Dana Oswald. Monsters, Gender, and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature. Gender in the Middle Ages 5
- Kathy Cawsey. Twentieth-Century Chaucer Criticism: Reading Audiences
- Jeremy Black. London: A History. Lancaster: Carnegie
- A History of British Drama: Genres – Developments – Model Interpretations
- Sarah Säckel. Jokes Don’t Jump from Nowhere: Comic Dialogism in P.G. Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ Novels
- Birgit Däwes. Ground Zero Fiction. History, Memory, and Representation in the American 9/11 Novel
- The Gordon Riots. Politics, Culture and Insurrection in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain
- Spatial Representations of British Identities
- The Literature of Melancholia: Early Modern to Postmodern
- Birgit Capelle. Time in American and East Asian Thinking: A Comparative Study of Temporality in American Transcendentalism, Pragmatism, and (Zen) Buddhist Thought
- Global Realignments and the Canadian Nation in the Third Millennium
- Ute Berns. Science, Politics, and Friendship in the Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes
- EINGEGANGENE SCHRIFTEN
