Say What I Am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book & the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition

Bitterli, Dieter

ISBN 10: 1487525486 / ISBN 13: 9781487525484

Published by University of Toronto Press, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 38670225-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Say What I Am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book & the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1487525486
• ISBN 13: 9781487525484
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Dieter Bitterli is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Zurich.