Saturday, September 1, 2018

For Wednesday: Selected Anglo-Saxon Riddles (see below)


Read the following Riddles scattered around the book:

#8 (p.79); #11 (p.83); #14 (p.89); #23 (p.161); #29 (p.263); #43 (p.319); #44 (p.321); #50 and 51 (p.407); #54 (p.411); #74. 75-76 (p.455)

NOTE: the possible solutions are listed on pages 541-545

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1:The word "riddle" comes from the Old English "raedan," which means "to advise, counsel, guide, explain." How do some of these riddles seem to illustrate the riddler's relationship the world? Or, how does it change the way we see/experience the world after riddling it? 

Q2: Based on the answers to some of these riddles, what kinds of items/things were important to the Anglo-Saxon world? Why do you think this is? What themes/items seem to crop up the most? 

Q3: One of the delights of the riddles is how they can throw you off the scent, and think you're reading something entirely different. Discuss how one of the Riddles does this--makes it seem like it's talking about something completely different, though once you know the answer, it's obvious that the meaning never changed.

Q4: Which Riddle do you feel is most like a poem? Why might you not even need to solve it to appreciate its message? (you might even consider why one of the solutions in the book doesn't seem right to you--and somehow robs the poem of its poetry). 

 



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