Description
Book SynopsisWordplay has been at the heart of Western literature for many centuries, and medieval riddles provide insights into the extraordinary and the everyday.
The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition assembles, for the first time ever, an astonishing array of riddles composed before 1200 CE that continue to entertain and puzzle.
Trade ReviewA comprehensive new collection beautifully edited…Riddles represent the whole of Anglo-Saxon life. These short pieces range about as widely as possible in tone and form, from ribald cracks to grammar lessons to ornate religious puzzles by the archbishop of Canterbury. For perhaps the first time, Orchard’s collection gathers these early medieval riddles from across centuries and languages. -- Adrienne Raphael * New York Times Book Review *
The size of the work alone bespeaks years of industrious effort…I should say as well that these riddles are immense fun (a statement that cannot be made about every weighty tome of Anglo-Saxon literature), and these two volumes [this volume and Orchard’s
A Commentary on The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition] make them accessible to all…An immensely valuable contribution to scholarship. -- David Porter * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
