12 min listen
Black and White and Read All Over: The Exeter Book Riddles
Black and White and Read All Over: The Exeter Book Riddles
ratings:
Length:
12 minutes
Released:
Sep 9, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
In this short Subcast episode, I wish to engage your help! The Anglo-Saxons loved riddles and nearly a hundred survive. Here are four. I'd love to hear your answers!Often I war with waves, battle the winds,strive against both at once, meaning to findthe ground wave-covered.Home is estranged from me—I am strong of struggle, if stilled.If I fail, they are stronger than me,and, tearing me, immediately rout,wishing to whisk away what I must ward.I may withstand them, if my tail is toughand the stones allow me to hold fastagainst unrelenting force. Ask what I am called. __________________________________________________________A moth ate words. It seemed to mea strange occasion, when I inquired about that wonder,that the worm swallowed the riddle of certain men,a thief in the darkness, the glorious pronouncementand its strong foundation. The stealing guest was notone whit the wiser, for all those words he swallowed. ____________________________________________________________I saw four wondrous creaturestravelling together; dark were their tracks,their footprints very black. Swift was their journey,faster than birds, flying through the breeze,diving under the waves. Restless it wrought,a struggling warrior who points out their waysover decorated gold, all four of them. __________________________________________________________ I am a wonderful thing, a pleasureto women, useful to the neighbors—I am harmless to the villagers,except to my slayer alone.My shaft is lofty, I stand over the bed,shaggy below someplace or other.Sometimes a churl’s daughter,proud-minded woman, quite sexy,dares to grapple me,molesting me by the redness,ravishing my head,affixing me in her fastness.She feels my forcingright away, she whoapproaches me,a woman with braided locks.Her eye will be wet— ____________________________________________________________Music: "Rejoice" (G.F. Handel) perf. Advent Chamber OrchestraText: Muir, Bernard James, ed. The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry, 1994.Support the showPlease like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen. Thank you!Email: classicenglishliterature@gmail.comFollow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, and YouTube.If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful!Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber OrchestraSubcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish GuardsSound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
Released:
Sep 9, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (64)
Hello and Welcome! by The Classic English Literature Podcast