KATERN 1 Ordernr. 060713 CORR OLD ENGLISH ENIGMATIC POEMS AND THE PLAY OF THE TEXTS Page 1 Ordernr. 060713 CORR STUDIES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Editorial Board under the auspices of the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York Elizabeth M. Tyler (University of York) Julian D. Richards (University of York) Ross Balzaretti (University of Nottingham) VOLUME 13 Page 2 Ordernr. 060713 CORR OLD ENGLISH ENIGMATIC POEMS AND THE PLAY OF THE TEXTS by John D. Niles H F Page 3 Ordernr. 060713 CORR British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Niles, John D. Old English enigmatic poems and the play of the texts. – (Studies in the early Middle Ages ; 13) 1. Exeter book 2. English poetry – Old English, ca. 450-1100 – History and criticism 3. Riddles, English (Old) – History and criticism I. Title 829.1'009 ISBN-10: 2503515304 © 2006, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2006/0095/6 ISBN: 2-503-51530-4 Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper Page 4 Ordernr. 060713 CORR Saturn said: What is that speechless thing at rest in a hollow, rapt in thought? It has seven tongues. Each tongue has twenty tips. Each of those tips contains the wisdom of an angel. Just one of those tongues will lift you up until you see the walls of Jerusalem golden, gleaming. —Guess what I mean. Solomon said: Books are far-famed. They often proclaim good things in store for people who cultivate their mind. They strengthen your wits and confirm your faith. They free your head from everyday dumps and distractions and bliss you out. —Solomon and Saturn II, lines 229–42 (slightly adapted) Page 5 Ordernr. 060713 CORR Page 6 Ordernr. 060713 CORR CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix List of Abbreviations xi List of Illustrations xv Introduction: Old English Poems and Current Readers 1 Chapter 1. Exeter Book Riddle 74 and the Play of the Text 11 Footnote: Getting the Exeter Book Right 57 Chapter 2. Exeter Book Riddle 55: Some Gallows Humour 61 Chapter 3. New Answers to Exeter Book Riddles 36, 58, 70, and 75/76 85 Chapter 4. Answering the Riddles in their Own Tongue 101 Appendix: Exeter Book Riddle Solutions in Old English 141 Chapter 5. The Problem of the Ending of The Wife’s Lament 149 Addendum: More on Curses in the Northern World 209 Chapter 6. The Trick of the Runes in The Husband’s Message 213 Page 7 Ordernr. 060713 CORR Chapter 7. Runic Hermeneutics in The Rune Poem 251 Addendum: A Bonus Ship 281 Chapter 8. Cynewulf’s Use of Initialisms in his Runic Signatures 285 Conclusion: On the Dance of Wit and Wisdom 307 Index of Old English Words and Phrases Discussed 311 Index of Old English Works and Passages 313 Index of Modern Scholars Cited 319 General Index 325 Page 8 Ordernr. 060713 CORR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V ersions of three of the eight chapters included in this volume have ap- peared in print before. ‘Exeter Book Riddle 74 and the Play of the Text’ appeared in ASE, 27 (1998), 169–207, and ‘The Trick of the Runes in The Husband’s Message’ in ASE, 32 (2003), 189–223. Those essays are reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press. ‘The Problem of the Ending of The Wife’s Lament’ was published in Speculum, 78 (2003), 1107–50, and is re- printed by permission of the Medieval Academy of America. Financial support from the Graduate Division of the University of Wiscon- sin, Madison, and from the UW-Madison Department of English (in the form of the Nancy C. Hoefs Professorship) enabled me to develop new work for this volume, and an appointment as Senior Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at UW-Madison allowed me to bring it to completion in the spring of 2005. Support from the Committee on Research at the University of Califor- nia, Berkeley, facilitated previous research. I am grateful to Clare Hall, Cam- bridge, for having named me a Visiting Fellow during the 1997–98 academic year, for that appointment allowed me to pursue my research in a sustained manner in a collegial setting. Support from both UC-Berkeley and UW-Madison has allowed me to air some of my findings before scholarly audiences in the United States and abroad. Preliminary versions of several of these chapters were presented at conferences sponsored by the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (Notre Dame, 1999), the International Congress of Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan (1999 and 2005), the Medieval Association of the Pacific (Victoria, B.C., 2000), the Medieval Academy of America (Tempe, AZ, 2001), and the Medieval Associa- tion of the Midwest (in 2001 and 2002). I am grateful to the many persons who offered constructive comments on those occasions. Several ad hoc events at Page 9 Ordernr. 060713 CORR x Acknowledgements which short versions of certain chapters were aired for discussion are mentioned in the notes. It is impossible to offer thanks here to the many persons who have stimulated my thoughts with their questions, comments, and criticisms over the past years. Some of those individuals have been anonymous readers of my work; many others are cited by name at appropriate points in the following pages. I am grate- ful to them all for their collegial interest and support. Expert editorial assistance was provided by Clare Orchard for the two articles published in Anglo-Saxon England, by Jacqueline Brown for the article published in Speculum, and by Deborah A. Oosterhouse for the present volume. My project assistant at UW- Madison, Brian O’Camb, has provided invaluable help. This book could not have been written in its current form were it not for the existence of the Dictionary of Old English project at the University of Toronto, including both its main entries and its searchable database, the Corpus of Old English. I am indebted to the editors of the Dictionary and to everyone who has laboured on that project over the past several decades for their service to the profession. Another invaluable aid has been the Thesaurus of Old English recently completed at Kings College, London. I have a lasting debt to my wife, Carole Newlands, who has earned my grati- tude for her loving support as I have worked on this volume despite the demands of her own professional life. This book is dedicated to her. Page 10