Unriddling the Exeter Riddles

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles PDF Author: Patrick J. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271078170
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
The vibrant and enigmatic Exeter Riddles (ca. 960–980) are among the most compelling texts in the field of medieval studies, in part because they lack textually supplied solutions. Indeed, these ninety-five Old English riddles have become so popular that they have even been featured on posters for the London Underground and have inspired a sculpture in downtown Exeter. Modern scholars have responded enthusiastically to the challenge of solving the Riddles, but have generally examined them individually. Few have considered the collection as a whole or in a broader context. In this book, Patrick Murphy takes an innovative approach, arguing that in order to understand the Riddles more fully, we must step back from the individual puzzles and consider the group in light of the textual and oral traditions from which they emerged. He offers fresh insights into the nature of the Exeter Riddles’ complexity, their intellectual foundations, and their lively use of metaphor.

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles PDF Author: Patrick J. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271078170
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
The vibrant and enigmatic Exeter Riddles (ca. 960–980) are among the most compelling texts in the field of medieval studies, in part because they lack textually supplied solutions. Indeed, these ninety-five Old English riddles have become so popular that they have even been featured on posters for the London Underground and have inspired a sculpture in downtown Exeter. Modern scholars have responded enthusiastically to the challenge of solving the Riddles, but have generally examined them individually. Few have considered the collection as a whole or in a broader context. In this book, Patrick Murphy takes an innovative approach, arguing that in order to understand the Riddles more fully, we must step back from the individual puzzles and consider the group in light of the textual and oral traditions from which they emerged. He offers fresh insights into the nature of the Exeter Riddles’ complexity, their intellectual foundations, and their lively use of metaphor.

The Exeter Book Riddles

The Exeter Book Riddles PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The ninety-six Anglo-Saxon riddles in the eleventh-century Exeter Book are poems of great charm, zest, and subtlety. Ranging from natural phenomena (such as icebergs and storms at sea) to animal and bird life, from the Christian concept of the creation to prosaic domestic objects (such as a rake and a pair of bellows), and from weaponry to the peaceful pursuits of music and writing, they are full of sharp observation, earthly humour and, above all, a sense of wonder. The main text of this volume contains Kevin Crossley-Holland's newly-revised translations of seventy-five fascinating and discursive riddles - all those not very badly damaged or impenetrably obscure - while a further sixteen are translated in the notes. These translations are very widely anthologised in Britain and the USA. Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias set some of them to music, Ralph Steadman has illustrated them and Michael Fairfax has incorporated them in his Riddle Sculpture."--BOOK JACKET.

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles PDF Author: Patrick J. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271048417
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Examines the Old English riddles found in the tenth-century Exeter Book manuscript, with particular attention to their relationship to larger traditions of literary and traditional riddling"--Provided by publisher.

Riddles at Work in the Early Medieval Tradition

Riddles at Work in the Early Medieval Tradition PDF Author: Megan Cavell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781526133717
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first collection devoted solely to early medieval riddles, Riddles at work showcases recent research in this popular, new field. It brings together studies of Old English and Latin riddles, authors at various stages of their careers and a range of approaches, aiming to map out both the state of the field now and its future directions.

Medieval Studies and the Ghost Stories of M. R. James

Medieval Studies and the Ghost Stories of M. R. James PDF Author: Patrick J. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271079576
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
Montague Rhodes James authored some of the most highly regarded ghost stories of all time—classics such as “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” that have been adapted many times over for radio and television and have never gone out of print. But while James is best known as a fiction writer and storyteller, he was also a provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton College, and a legendary and influential scholar whose pioneering work in the study of biblical texts and medieval manuscripts, art, and architecture is still relevant today. In Medieval Studies and the Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Patrick J. Murphy argues that these twin careers are inextricably linked. James’s research not only informed his fiction but also reflected his anxieties about the nature of academic life and explored the delicate divide between professional, university men and erratic hobbyists or antiquaries. Murphy shows how detailed attention to the scholarly inspirations behind James’s fiction provides considerable insight into a formative moment in medieval studies, as well as into James’s methods as a master stylist of understated horror. During his life, James often claimed that his stories were mere entertainments—pleasing distractions from a life largely defined by academic discipline and restraint—and readers over the years have been content to take him at his word. This intriguing volume, however, convincingly proves otherwise.

Say what I Am Called

Say what I Am Called PDF Author: Dieter Bitterli
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 0802093523
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
Perhaps the most enigmatic cultural artifacts that survive from the Anglo-Saxon period are the Old English riddle poems that were preserved in the tenth century Exeter Book manuscript. Clever, challenging, and notoriously obscure, the riddles have fascinated readers for centuries and provided crucial insight into the period. In Say What I Am Called, Dieter Bitterli takes a fresh look at the riddles by examining them in the context of earlier Anglo-Latin riddles. Bitterli argues that there is a vigorous common tradition between Anglo-Latin and Old English riddles and details how the contents of the Exeter Book emulate and reassess their Latin predecessors while also expanding their literary and formal conventions. The book also considers the ways in which convention and content relate to writing in a vernacular language. A rich and illuminating work that is as intriguing as the riddles themselves, Say What I Am Called is a rewarding study of some of the most interesting works from the Anglo-Saxon period.

The Riddles of The Hobbit

The Riddles of The Hobbit PDF Author: Adam Roberts
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137373632
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
Riddles are threaded through The Hobbit , and are key to Tolkien's creative imagination. The Riddles of The Hobbit situates this novel and the rest of Tolkien's writing in the context of Old English riddling culture, and more modern day examples; it sets out to solve the many riddles of the novel in original and often surprising ways.

Chaucer

Chaucer PDF Author: David B. Raybin
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271035673
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Eleven essays that explore how modern scholarship interprets Chaucer's writings"--Provided by publisher.

The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf'

The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf' PDF Author: Edward Pettit
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1783748303
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book Here

Book Description
The image of a giant sword melting stands at the structural and thematic heart of the Old English heroic poem Beowulf. This meticulously researched book investigates the nature and significance of this golden-hilted weapon and its likely relatives within Beowulf and beyond, drawing on the fields of Old English and Old Norse language and literature, liturgy, archaeology, astronomy, folklore and comparative mythology. In Part I, Pettit explores the complex of connotations surrounding this image (from icicles to candles and crosses) by examining a range of medieval sources, and argues that the giant sword may function as a visual motif in which pre-Christian Germanic concepts and prominent Christian symbols coalesce. In Part II, Pettit investigates the broader Germanic background to this image, especially in relation to the god Ing/Yngvi-Freyr, and explores the capacity of myths to recur and endure across time. Drawing on an eclectic range of narrative and linguistic evidence from Northern European texts, and on archaeological discoveries, Pettit suggests that the image of the giant sword, and the characters and events associated with it, may reflect an elemental struggle between the sun and the moon, articulated through an underlying myth about the theft and repossession of sunlight. The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in 'Beowulf' is a welcome contribution to the overlapping fields of Beowulf-scholarship, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and Germanic philology. Not only does it present a wealth of new readings that shed light on the craft of the Beowulf-poet and inform our understanding of the poem’s major episodes and themes; it further highlights the merits of adopting an interdisciplinary approach alongside a comparative vantage point. As such, The Waning Sword will be compelling reading for Beowulf-scholars and for a wider audience of medievalists.

Borrowed Objects and the Art of Poetry

Borrowed Objects and the Art of Poetry PDF Author: Denis Ferhatovic
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781526179142
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study uses examinations of Exeter riddles, Old English religious verse and Beowulf to formulate the poetics of spolia - creative transformations of martial and architectural plunder serving to signal metatextual reflection.