The Riddles of the Exeter Book (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Riddles of the Exeter Book

The preparation of this first separate edition of 27m Riddles of tire Exeter Book, certainly the most difficult text in the 'field of anglo-saxon, has been to me a work of very real delight. Both in matter and manner these poems present so many engaging problems - which, when read aright, reveal at once the loftiest and lowest in older England's thought, and open up a hundred vistas of early word and action that I count as great gain the years spent in their study. May it be my good fortune to impart to others a generous share of this pleasure and profit!

A few words of my purposes in this edition are in place here. I have striven to set forth the principles that govern the comparative study of riddles, and to trace the relation of these Anglo - Saxon enigmas to the Latin art-riddles of nearly the same period and to the folk-products of many lands and times. In the chapter upon the authorship of these poems and their place in the history of the Cynewulf question, I have tried to weigh all the evidence with a higher regard for reason and the probabilities than for the mere weight of authority, which in the case of these riddles has often been fatal to free investigation and opinion. In the presentation of solutions in the Introduction and in the later discus sion of these in the Notes, I have also sought to 'prove all things and hold fast that which is good.' As aids to definite conclusions, the testi mony of analogues and the light thrown by Old English life and customs have been of far higher worth than the random guesses of modern critics. But to Dietrich's illuminating treatment of each of the zexez'er Boo/e KM d/ey and to the essays of more recent scholars I gladly admit a large debt. I have closely analyzed the form and structure of the poems with the hope of bringing them nearer to the reader's understanding. But, above all, I have aimed, through elaborate annotation, so to illustrate the 'veined humanity' of these remarkable productions, so to show forth their closeness to every phase of the life of their day, that this book might be a guide to much of the folk - lore and culture of Englishmen before the Conquest.

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