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Riddles, English (Old) --- English poetry --- Riddles, Latin --- Anglo-Saxon riddles --- English riddles, Old --- Old English riddles --- Riddles, Anglo-Saxon --- Riddles, Old English --- Latin riddles --- History and criticism.

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In A Feast of Creatures, Craig Williamson recasts nearly one hundred Old English riddles of the Exeter Book into a modern verse mode that yokes the cadences of Aelfric with the sprung rhythm of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Like the early English riddlers before him, Williamson gives voice to the nightingale, plow, ox, phallic onion, and storm-wind. In lean and taut language he offers us mead disguised as a mighty wrestler, the sword as a celibate thane, the silver wine-cup as a seductress, the horn transformed from head-warrior to ink-belly or battle-singer. In his notes and commentary he gives us possible and probable solutions, sources, and analogues, a shrewd sense of literary play, and traces the literary and cultural contexts in which each riddle may be viewed. In his introduction, Williamson traces for us the history of riddles and riddle scholarship.

English poetry --- Riddles, English (Old) --- Anglo-Saxon riddles --- English riddles, Old --- Old English riddles --- Riddles, Anglo-Saxon --- Riddles, Old English --- Anglo-Saxon poetry --- English poetry, Old --- Old English poetry

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Humanity is a dominant presence in the Exeter Book riddle collection. It is frequently shown using, shaping and binding the physical world in which it lives. The riddles depict master and craftsman and use the familiar human world as a point of orientation within a vast, overwhelming cosmos. But the riddles also offer an eco-centric perspective, one that considers the natural origins of man-made products and the personal plight of useful human resources. This study offers fresh insights into the collection, investigating humanity's interaction with, and attitudes towards, the rest of the created world. Drawing on the principles of eco-criticism and eco-theology, the study considers the cultural and biblical influences on the depiction of nature in the collection, arguing that the texts engage with post-lapsarian issues of exploitation, suffering and mastery. Depictions of marginalised perspectives of sentient and non-sentient beings, such as trees, ore and oxen, are not just characteristic of the riddle genre, but are actively used to explore the point of view of the natural world and the impact humanity has on its non-human inhabitants. The author not only explores the riddles' resistance to anthropocentrism, but challenges our own tendency to read these enigmas from a human-centred perspective. Corinne Dale gained her PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Riddles. --- Conundrums --- Enigmas --- Riddles, English --- Amusements --- Folk literature --- Literary recreations --- Questions and answers --- Wit and humor --- Charades --- Puzzles --- Riddles, English (Old) --- English poetry --- Riddles in literature. --- Nature in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Exeter book. --- Nature in poetry --- Anglo-Saxon riddles --- English riddles, Old --- Old English riddles --- Riddles, Anglo-Saxon --- Riddles, Old English --- Codex exoniensis --- Exeterbuch --- Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501 --- 450-1100 --- Old English Language, Period of --- Anglo-Saxon literature. --- Anthropocentrism. --- Eco-criticism. --- Eco-theology. --- Exeter Book. --- Medieval Literature. --- Medieval. --- Metaphor. --- Middle Ages. --- Old English riddles. --- Old English. --- Riddle. --- enigmatography. --- joke riddle. --- neck-riddle. --- translation. --- vernacular riddles.