{"id":2850,"date":"2017-02-17T17:08:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T22:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/?p=2850"},"modified":"2020-12-01T08:27:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T13:27:22","slug":"reading-runes-in-the-exeter-book-riddles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/2017\/02\/17\/reading-runes-in-the-exeter-book-riddles\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Runes in the Exeter Book Riddles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riddles and runes go together, at least in some of those found in the medieval codex known as the Exeter Book of Old English poetry (Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501).<\/p>\n

J. R. R. Tolkien puts their cryptic association to creative use when, in The Hobbit<\/em>, the dwarves\u2019 map reveals to Elrond in runic \u2018moon-letters\u201d a riddle describing how King Thorin Oakenshield\u2019s company will\u00a0discover the secret door and enter the Lonely Mountain of Erebor once they arrive to reclaim their stolen treasure-hoard from the dragon Smaug.<\/p>\n

Moon-letters revealing the riddle of the secret door into Smaug\u2019s lair from Peter Jackson\u2019s film adaption, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with Tolkien\u2019s moon-letters, runes found in the Exeter Book Riddles<\/em> serve to both obscure and illuminate their riddle and its solution. This is to say\u2014if you are literate and can read the runic alphabet\u2014you have an important clue to solving the puzzle. If not, the riddle\u2019s solution is even further obscured from the solver.<\/p>\n

While certainly not every Exeter Book riddle contains runes, and indeed most do not, there is a higher frequency of runes in riddles than elsewhere in the extant corpus of Old English poetry, suggesting that perhaps runes offered something useful to the playful, puzzling, at times comical, Old English riddle.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there is a general instability in the consistency of runic characters, and this further adds another enigmatic layer of obscurity to a riddle, since no runic standard of writing\u2014or carving\u2014ever truly existed in any standardized form. Rather, form and style of runic inscriptions (as well as the orientation of runic characters) varied wildly in medieval England and Scandinavia, which makes reading runes especially difficult even to those with some runic literacy.<\/p>\n

So how do runes enhance a riddle? If one can determine what letter a given runic character corresponds to in the Latin alphabet, how does this knowledge illuminate the riddle and its solution? By looking carefully at Exeter Book Riddle<\/em> 19 and Riddle<\/em> 24, we will now explore how runes operate within a broader riddling framework.<\/p>\n

Riddle 24 on folio 106v, Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ic eom wunderlicu wiht,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 wr\u00e6sne mine stefne,
\n<\/em>hwilum beorce swa hund,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hwilum bl\u00e6te swa gat,
\n<\/em>hwilum gr\u00e6de swa gos,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hwilum gielle swa hafoc,
\n<\/em>hwilum ic onhyrge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00feone haswan earn,
\n<\/em>gu\u00f0fugles hleo\u00feor,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hwilum glidan reorde
\n<\/em>mu\u00fee gem\u00e6ne,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hwilum m\u00e6wes song,
\n<\/em>\u00fe\u00e6r ic glado sitte.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G mec nemna\u00f0,
\n<\/em>Swylce. A ond R\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 O fulleste\u00f0,
\n<\/em>H ond I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nu ic haten eom
\n<\/em>swa \u00fea siex stafas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sweotule becna\u00fe.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI am a wondrous thing\u2014I change my voice:
\nsometimes I bark like a hound
\nsometimes I bleat like a goat,
\nsometimes I squawk like a goose,
\nsometimes I screech like a hawk,
\nsometimes I imitate the grey eagle,
\nthe sound of birds of prey,
\nsometimes I utter with my mouth the kite\u2019s voice,
\nsometimes the gull\u2019s song,
\nwhere I gladly sit.<\/p>\n

G names me,
\nalso A and R.
\nO supports me,
\nH and I.<\/p>\n

Now I am called as those six letters clearly show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solution to Riddle<\/em> 24 is higora<\/em>, or \u2018magpie\u2019 in Old English, as the runes indicate when spelled out. In this riddle, runes function to obscure the solution from anyone unable to read these cryptic characters, but paradoxically they function also to illuminate the solution for the literate solver able to read the runes. However, as mysterious as the runes might appear to some, for those who understood them they aided in solving the puzzle.<\/p>\n

Another riddle that uses runes is Riddle<\/em> 19. In this enigma, there is a game of misdirection:<\/p>\n

Riddle 19 on folio 105r, Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ic seah on\u00a0si\u00fee\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 S R O
\n<\/em>H hygewloncne,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 heafodbeorhtne,
\n<\/em>swiftne ofer s\u00e6lwong\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 swi\u00fee \u00fer\u00e6gan.
\n<\/em>H\u00e6fde him on hrycge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hilde\u00fery\u00fee
\n<\/em>N O M\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 n\u00e6gledne rad
\n<\/em>A G E W.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Widlast ferede
\n<\/em>rynestrong on rade\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 rofne C O
\n<\/em>F O A H.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For w\u00e6s \u00fey beorhtre,
\n<\/em>swylcra si\u00fef\u00e6t.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Saga hw\u00e6t ic hatte
\n<\/em>
\n\u201cI saw, on a journey,
\nS R O H,
\nproud in spirit, head-bright,
\nrunning very swiftly over the fruitful plain.
\nIt had battle-glory on his back,
\nN O M,
\nA nailed road,
\nA G E W.
\nTraveled the\u00a0far-paths,
\nrun-strong on the road,
\nbrave C O F O A H.<\/p>\n

The journey was the brighter, that very expedition.<\/p>\n

Say what I am called\u201d<\/p>\n

Riddle<\/em> 19 contains one of the prosopopoetic riddling challenges, enigmatic formulae which conclude many in the Exeter Book collection and prompt the reader to solve the puzzle: saga hw\u00e6t ic hatte<\/em> \u201csay what I am called.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to answer this enigmatic challenge, one must first understand the riddle of the runes. In this case, if one deciphers and reverses the runic characters, the letters spell out a number of Old English words that allows the solver to understand the riddle in its entirety. The runic words are decoded as follows:
\n
\n<\/em>S R O H =\u00a0hors<\/em> (horse)
\nN O M =\u00a0mon<\/em> (man)
\nA G E W =\u00a0wega<\/em> (way)
\nC O F O A H =\u00a0haofoc<\/em> (hawk)<\/p>\n

Now the riddle becomes more comprehensible, though not totally, as the runic words create syntactic breaks in the poem:<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a horse<\/em> on a journey,
\nproud in spirit, head-bright,
\nrunning very swiftly over the fruitful plain.
\nIt had battle-glory on his back,
\na man<\/em>.
\nA nailed road,
\nthe way<\/em>
\ntraveled the far-paths,
\nrun-strong on the road,
\na brave hawk<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The journey was the brighter, that very expedition.<\/p>\n

Say what I am called\u201d<\/p>\n

With these words semantically integrated into the riddle, some resemblance of sense is gained. The solver of Riddle<\/em> 19 may now better comprehend the riddle\u2019s meaning; however, its solution is by no means as clear for the literate rune-reader as higora<\/em>\u00a0is for Riddle<\/em> 24. With the runes deciphered, Riddle<\/em> 19 presents an image of a man riding a horse along a nailed road with a brave hawk. But this image seems to fall short of a proper solution to the riddle. Although answers have been put forth, none has proven satisfactory. Riddle<\/em> 19 remains unsolved, a puzzle yet to be fully unriddled.<\/p>\n

Richard Fahey
\nPhD Candidate
\nDepartment of English
\nUniversity of Notre Dame<\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bitterli, Dieter. Say What I am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book and the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition<\/em>. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2009.<\/p>\n

Murphy, Patrick J. Unriddling the Exeter Riddles<\/em>. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011.<\/p>\n

Spurkland, Terje. “Literacy and \u2018Runacy\u2019” in Medieval Scandinavia in Scandinavia and Europe 800-1350: Contact, Conflict and Coexistence<\/em>, ed. Jonathan Adams and Katherine Holman. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riddles and runes go together, at least in some of those found in the medieval codex known as the Exeter Book of Old English poetry (Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501). J. R. R. Tolkien puts their cryptic association to creative use when, in The Hobbit, the dwarves\u2019 map reveals to Elrond in runic \u2018moon-letters\u201d a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Reading Runes in the Exeter Book Riddles”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1886,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[264204,56012,264216,73957,469271,264203],"tags":[76029,73938,76046,76025,76077,73478,76075,76076,44160],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disciplines","category-english","category-manuscript-studies","category-north-seas","category-puzzles-enigmas","category-special-series","tag-exeter-book","tag-manuscripts","tag-material-culture","tag-medieval-literature","tag-old-english","tag-pop-culture","tag-riddles","tag-runes","tag-tolkien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5738,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions\/5738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}