Old English Riddles

Recent ASNC PhD graduates, Dr Matthias Ammon and Dr Megan Cavell, are pleased to announce their new blog, The Riddle Ages. Stemming in part from their participation in the department’s exciting Old English Reading Group, Ammon and Cavell have embarked upon the ambitious task of providing open access translations and commentary for every riddle in the Exeter Book. The hope is that this blog will act as a teaching and reference tool for those learning Old English, offer an easily accessible list of potential riddle-solutions for researchers and provide insight into these fascinating poems for interested members of the public.

Below is an example of the first post for Riddle 1:

Hwylc is hæleþa þæs horsc      ond þæs hygecræftig

þæt þæt mæge asecgan,      hwa mec on sið wræce,

þonne ic astige strong,      stundum reþe,

þrymful þunie,      þragum wræce

5   fere geond foldan,      folcsalo bærne,

ræced reafige?      Recas stigað,

haswe ofer hrofum.      Hlin bið on eorþan,

wælcwealm wera,      þonne ic wudu hrere,

bearwas bledhwate,      beamas fylle,

10   holme gehrefed,      heahum meahtum

wrecen on waþe,      wide sended;

hæbbe me on hrycge      þæt ær hadas wreah

foldbuendra,      flæsc ond gæstas,

somod on sunde.      Saga hwa mec þecce,

15   oþþe hu ic hatte,      þe þa hlæst bere.

Who among heroes is so sharp and so skilled in mind

that he may declare who presses me on my journey,

when I rise up, mighty, sometimes savage,

full of force, I resound, at times I press on,

5   travel throughout the land, I burn the people’s hall,

plunder the palace? The reek rises,

grey to the roofs. There is a clamour on the earth,

the slaughter-death of men, when I shake the forest,

the quick-growing groves, topple trees,

10   sheltered by the sea, pressed into wandering

by the powers on high, sent afar;

I have on my back that which earlier covered each rank

of the earth-dwellers, flesh and spirit,

swimming together. Say what covers me,

15   or how I am called, who bear that burden.

See the original blog post for possible solutions!

Thoughts on Mel Gibson's Vikings

Matthias Ammon writes:

News emerged recently that Mel Gibson will turn to 'the Vikings' for his next directing venture, following Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. Details of the project are scarce as yet, though it has been confirmed that Leonardo DiCaprio is going to star. According to some media sources, DiCaprio 'has long been fascinated by Viking culture', and he will feature in a storyline as 'unsparing' as Gibson's earlier films. Given the director's interest in 'violence in any society' (as stated in a recent interview with Total Film magazine), one is inclined to assume that he will not focus on the cultural impact of the Vikings in the British Isles.

William Monahan, the screenwriter who also penned Ridley Scott's crusade-drama Kingdom of Heaven, is writing the script for the as-yet-untitled film. KoH, like Braveheart, was not exactly acclaimed for its historical accuracy by academic critics, though Gibson has pledged that he will follow his use of Aramaic (in Passion) and Mayan (in Apocalypto) with Old English and Old Norse: 'I think it's going to be English - the English that would have been spoken back then - and Old Norse. Whatever the ninth century had to offer. I'm going to give you real.' Gibson, who has claimed to have been studying Old Norse at the age of 16, when he first had the idea of making a Viking movie, said he wants to 'see somebody who I have never seen before speaking low guttural German who scares the living shit out of me coming up to my house' in order to recreate the terror of the Viking attacks on England.

 

Mel Gibson, Braveheart

If this comment is anything to go by, it remains to be seen whether Gibson's striving for authenticity will extend to the philological rigour of reconstructing ninth-century Old English and Old Norse. The standard versions of both languages as taught to undergraduates around the world are both later and confined to a relatively distinct geographical area: late West Saxon of the tenth and eleventh century for Old English; Norwegian and Icelandic from c. 1150-1350 for Old Norse. There are of course very few written sources dating from earlier than these time periods, and reconstruction is notoriously difficult. Furthermore, this is the period in Old English where at least the written language becomes standardised, though the spoken language probably would have retained the often very significant dialectial varieties exhibited in earlier stages of the language. One wonders just how 'real' Gibson is going to give us: will a ninth-century Mercian be attempting to converse by speaking eleventh-century West Saxon to a Norwegian speaking thirteenth-century Old Norse? On the other hand, while the extent of mutual intelligibility between speakers of Old English and Old Norse is still a matter for discussion, one imagines that their language - which an Anglo-Saxon would probably have recognised and may partly have understood - would have been one of the less terrifying aspects of a raiding party or an invading army, even if it had been 'low and guttural'.