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" Old English enigmatic poems and the play of the texts / "
by John D. Niles.
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BL
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| Record Number
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858674
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| Main Entry
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Niles, John D.
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| Title & Author
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Old English enigmatic poems and the play of the texts /\ by John D. Niles.
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| Publication Statement
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Turnhout [Belgium] :: Brepols,, ©2006.
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| Series Statement
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Studies in the early Middle Ages ;; v. 13
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| Page. NO
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xiii, 330 pages :: illustrations ;; 25 cm.
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| ISBN
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2503515304
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: 9782503515304
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| Bibliographies/Indexes
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Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
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| Contents
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Old English poems and current readers -- Exeter Book riddle 74 and the play of the text -- Exeter Book riddle 55: some gallows humour -- New answers to Exeter Book riddles 36, 58, 70, and 75/76 -- Answering the riddles in their own tongue: Exeter Book riddle solutions in Old English -- The problem of the ending of The wife's lament: more on curses in the northern world -- The trick of the runes in The husband's message -- Runic hermeneutics in The rune poem: a bonus ship -- Cynewulf's use of initialisms in his runic signatures -- On the dance of wit and wisdom.
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| Abstract
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"This book consists of a close study of a number of verse texts chiefly drawn from the Exeter Book of Old English poetry. All of these texts are enigmatic. Some are outright riddles, while others (such as the elegies) are riddle-like in their manner of simultaneously giving and withholding information. The author approaches these poems as microcosms of the art of Old English poetry in general, which (particularly in its more lyrical forms) relies on its audience's ability to decipher metaphorical language and to fill out details that remain unexpressed. The chief claim advanced is that Old English poetry is a good deal more playful than is often acknowledged, so that the art of interpreting it can require a kind of 'game strategy' whereby riddling authors match their wits against adventurous readers. Innovative readings of a number of poems are offered, while the whole collection of Exeter Book Riddles is given a set of answers posed in the language of the riddler. The literary use of runes in The Rune Poem, The Husband's Message, and Cynewulf's runic signatures comes under close scrutiny, and the thesis is advanced that Anglo-Saxon runes (particularly those that lacked stable conventional names) were sometimes used as initialisms. The book combines the methods of rigorous philology and imaginative literary analysis."--BOOK JACKET.
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| Subject
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English poetry-- Old English, approximately 450-1100-- History and criticism.
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Riddles, English (Old)-- History and criticism.
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18.05 English literature.
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Altenglisch
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English poetry.
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Lyrik
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Rätsel
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Riddles, English (Old)
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| Subject
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Exeter book.
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Exeter book.
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The Exeter Book
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Altenglisch.
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| Dewey Classification
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829/.1009
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| LC Classification
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PR217.N55 2006
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| NLM classification
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HH 1759rvk
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