exts and ranslations

Below are links to texts of the Riddles accompanied by translations. The first stage of this part of the AngoSaxonRiddles provides the Anglo-Saxon texts of all the Riddles in the Exeter book, accompanied by translations, as those appear in Craig Williamson's two important books: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book (Chapel Hill: U. of NC Press, 1977) and A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle Songs (Philadelphia: U. of Penn. Press; 1982). The numbering of the Riddles is, of course, Williamson's. His consolidation of KD 1-3 into Riddle 1, KD 75-76 into Riddle 73, and KD 79-80 into Riddle 76 produces a total of 91 riddles instead of Krapp-Dobbie 95. His reasons for the consolidation and the resulting renumbering, in spite of the inconvenience, and the wide distribution of The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, seem just as sound now as they did to Adam Davis in 1992 (see his essay, "Agon and Gnomon: Forms and Functions of the Anglo-Saxon Riddles" in De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir). Anyone wishing to consider these riddles as they appear in Krapp and Dobbie may easily do so. The parts that Williamson consolidated into Riddle 1 are marked by large Illuminated capitals in Riddle one, but for anyone wanting to consider the parts in separation and consider what translators have made of them click on Riddle1KD, Riddle2KD, or Riddle3KD, here or below.

In the course of the next year, we will be working on providing other translations, commentary and even perhaps video and sound of performances. Our ultimate goal is to make this site as comprehensive as possible including on-line access to the kind of work that Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe made available in her Old English Shorter Poems: Basic Reading (New York: Garland, 1994) with links from the texts of individual riddles.

The process of including Williamson's translations has only just begun here on March 17, 2001, but I hope soon to remove this note. Craig Williamson has graciously allowed access to the texts and translations. It may be that other parts of these books will be made available here as well.

The xeter ook iddles

The Riddles appear in the Exeter Book Manuscript in two blocks and with a defective version of 30 and a copy of #60 separated by other short poems. This context has often been considered relevant to the motives for the collection of the Riddles them selves. In order to provide convenient access to the most obviously relevant of these poems, we include the names. Texts will be made available when rights to reproduce them are clarified.

The poem that immediately precedes the first group of Riddles is "Wulf and Eadwacer".

Riddle1 Riddle2 Riddle3 Riddle4 Riddle5 Riddle6 Riddle7 Riddle8 Riddle9 Riddle10
Riddle11 Riddle12 Riddle13 Riddle14 Riddle15 Riddle16 Riddle17 Riddle18 Riddle19 Riddle20
Riddle21 Riddle22 Riddle23 Riddle24 Riddle25 Riddle26 Riddle27 Riddle28 Riddle29 Riddle30
Riddle31 Riddle32 Riddle33 Riddle34 Riddle35 Riddle36 Riddle37 Riddle38 Riddle39 Riddle40
Riddle41 Riddle42 Riddle43 Riddle44 Riddle45 Riddle46 Riddle47 Riddle48 Riddle49 Riddle50
Riddle51 Riddle52 Riddle53 Riddle54 Riddle55 Riddle56 Riddle57 Riddle1K Riddle2K Riddle3K

Between Riddles 57 (KD 59) and 59 ( KD 61) there are twelve other texts. The last four are Riddle "28b," which is included as a garbled variant in the Riddle 28 file, then Riddle 58. The two other poems which are happily read in the context of the Riddles are " The Husband's Message " and "The Ruin."

Riddle58 Riddle59. Riddle60 Riddle61 Riddle62 Riddle63 Riddle64 Riddle65 Riddle66 Riddle67
Riddle68 Riddle69 Riddle70 Riddle71 Riddle72 Riddle73 Riddle74 Riddle75 Riddle76 Riddle77
Riddle78 Riddle79 Riddle80 Riddle81 Riddle82 Riddle83 Riddle84 Riddle85 Riddle86 Riddle87
Riddle88 Riddle89 Riddle90 Riddle91