Proseminar: Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book
Fr. 14.00-16.00
Geb. 23.21 Raum U1.68                                                         Beginn: 19.04.2002
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In this course we will edit, translate and discuss selections from the Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book, a late 10th-century collection of some 95 Anglo-Saxon riddles. In this compilation we find a large variety of riddles ranging from those dealing with Christian topics, such as the creation, the cross, or liturgical instruments, to those dealing with the sphere of everyday life, such as animals, weapons, musical instruments and the so-called 'obscene riddles'.

Riddle No. 47 may serve as an example of the genre (the solution is 'book-worm'):

Moððe word fræt.     Me þæt þuhte
wrætlicu wyrd,     þa ic þæt wundor gefrægn
þæt se wyrm forswealg    wera gied sumes,
þeof in þystro,    þrymfæstne cwide
ond þæs strangan staþol.     Stælgiest ne wæs
wihte þy gleawra,    þe he þam wordum swealg.

Apart from discussing the literary form and its relation to Anglo-Saxon culture and mentality, we will prepare an edition with translations, commentary and glossary of selected riddles. The results will be published on the BSCW-Server of the HHU and as an offline version on CD-ROM.

In the first unit on 19 Apr 2002 we will select the riddles to be edited. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to attend this introductory lesson. The seminar will be closed then. Students who miss this first lesson cannot attend the course.
You can put your name down on the list of participants by contacting
holteir@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de

Any history of Old English literature will provide basic information on the riddles. Various editions are available at the University Libraries, e.g.:

Muir, Bernard J. (Ed.). The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501. Exeter 1994.
Williamson, Craig (Ed.). The Old English Riddles of the 'Exeter Book'. Chapel Hill 1977.
Williamson, Craig. A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-songs, translated with introduction, notes and commentary. Philadelphia 1982.

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Voraussetzungen: Introduction to English Medieval Studies -
                           Part I: General und Part II: Old English
Leistungsnachweis: Edition, translation and interpretation of a selected riddle
Veranstaltungstyp: Wahlpflicht M.A./Prom.; SII: B1,2.

Der Inhalt der Lehrveranstaltung ist geeignet für die Zwischenprüfung

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©  Rainer Holtei
last updated
20.09.2009

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