RIDDLE POSTS BY ARCHIVE DATE: DEC 2020

Commentary for Bern Riddle 1: De olla

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 11 Dec 2020
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 1: De olla

Storms! Philosophy! God! Heaven! Humankind! These are some of the suitably epic subjects that other medieval riddle collections begin with. The first of the Bern riddles, on the other hand, is all about the humble clay pot. But this does not mean that Bern Riddle 1 is mundane. In fact, it is quite the opposite—it describes an ordinary object in very unexpected and fantastical ways.

Pottery is one of the oldest and most important human technologies. Once you learn that clay hardens when baked at high temperatures, you can create all kinds of lovely things—bowls, flasks and jugs, as well as lamps, weights and figurines, and bricks and tiles. Oh, and pots!

Late Shelly ware pot
Late Shelly ware cooking pot, manufactured using a pottery wheel in England, c.850-1000. Photo (by the Trustees of the British Museum) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)

Before I start on the riddle, here’s a very brief potted history… of pottery.

Early medieval pottery is incredibly diverse, and it varies greatly by region and time, depending on the material, design, and technologies involved. For example, in England, pottery from the 6th and 7th centuries was typically made on a small scale, shaped by hand, and fired on bonfires. The pottery wheel was introduced by the 9th century and production became more specialised. By the 10th century, a lot of pottery was produced in towns, often using techniques such as wheel-throwing and large, chimneyed kilns.

In Lombardy, where some scholars think the Bern riddles were written, the situation was more complex still, but the general pattern was the same. The turbulent 7th century brought a general decline in quality, but wheels continued to be used in many places, and the pottery industry expanded again from the 800s onwards alongside the newly expanding cities.

Shards of hand-made pottery
Shards of hand-made pottery, probably cremation urns. Lincolnshire, England c.450-600. Photo (by Adam Daubney/The Portable Antiquities Scheme/The Trustees of the British Museum) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 2.0)

Anyway, enough history—let’s get back to the riddle! As with most of the Bern riddles, it is written from the perspective of the object—a technique known as prosopopoeia. The pot riddle is the first of eleven riddles on domestic subjects, and the riddle-creator may have been influenced by chapter XX of Isidore of Seville’s very influential, 7th century encyclopedia, The Etymologies (Salvador-Bello, pages 257-8). On a less scholarly note, when I think of these riddles, I immediately think of the anthropomorphic Mrs Potts, Lumiere and co. in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Prosopopoeia is still very relevant in our culture today.


Lines 1 and 2 are all about the material of the pot. They challenge us to explain how a daughter can have two fathers, one immortal and the other mortal. Some readers will know that Latin has three genders—masculine, feminine, and neuter. In these riddles, the grammatical gender of the solution is often depicted in terms of human gender identity. For example, the Latin for pot (olla) is feminine, and so the pot becomes a daughter (nata) rather than a son (natus). The same is true about the fathers. The father who dies is probably fire (ignis) and the father who endures is probably clay (limus)—both words are grammatically masculine. Alternatively, Thomas Klein has argued that the father who dies is the maker of the pot and the father who lives is fire or heat (Klein, pages 407-8).

Lines 3 and 4 explain how the clay is softened, shaped and spun. The single word giro (literally “in a circle”) tells us that the riddler was familiar with pottery wheels—which would fit nicely with the idea that the Bern riddles were written in Italy. The mother in line three could be the hand (manus) that kneads the clay or the water that softens it (aqua). This depends on how we understand the word dura (“hard”), which can refer to either the mother or the child.

Just like the Exeter Book riddles, the Bern riddles sometimes use innuendo. Line 3 tells us that a soft thing is twisted into a “suitable form.” This reminds me of the stiþes nathwæt (“something stiff”) of Exeter Riddle 54. It also makes Bern Riddle 1 a medieval precursor to the sexy pottery scene in the popular 1990s film Ghost .


The final two lines refer to the firing of the pot in a kiln or open fire (“when warmed”), which is needed before it can feed people. The riddle then closes with the offer of food to everyone. Thanks, pot—don’t mind if I do!

Bern Riddle 1 is the perfect introduction to the Bern riddles. It contains many of the themes and motifs that we find elsewhere in the collection: children and parents, life and death, feeding and food-giving, the body, and opposites. And, just like the other riddles, it still captures our imagination today, through its uncanny knack of making ordinary objects seem extraordinary and wondrous.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

On early medieval pottery

Hamerow, Helena. “Pottery.” In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Edited by Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, Second Edition. Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell, 2014. pages 381-3

Wickham, Chris. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. pages 728-741

On the riddle

Klein, Thomas. “Pater Occultus: The Latin Bern Riddles and Their Place in Early Medieval Riddling.” Neophilologus 103 (2019), pages 339-417.

Röösli, Samuel. “The Pot, the Broom, and Other Humans: Concealing Material Objects in the Bern Riddles.” In Secrecy and Surveillance in Medieval and Early Modern England. Edited by Annette Kern-Stähler & Nicole Nyffenegger. Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature (SPELL), Vol. 37 (Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2020), pages 87-104.

Winferfeld, Paul. “Observationes criticalae.” Philologus vol. 53 (1899), pages 289-95.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Commentary for Exeter Riddle 54
Bern Riddle 1: De olla

Commentary for Bern Riddle 2: De lucerna

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 18 Dec 2020
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 2: De lucerna

In the last riddle, we met a rather unusual pot. Now, we get to meet the pot’s equally unusual half-sister—the lamp.

The first rule of medieval studies is: 'You do not talk about “The Dark Ages.”' The second rule of medieval studies is: 'You do not talk about “The Dark Ages.”' This is because the term suggests that the Middle Ages were a time of great ignorance or mystery—and, for the most part, they weren’t!

via GIPHY

But, for the sake of an awful joke, I am going to break all the rules. So, I will introduce this commentary by saying: “If you're living in the Dark Ages, you’re going to need a good lamp.”

There is some truth to this. In early medieval Europe, candles and oil lamps were an important source of illumination for all kinds of people, from night-watchmen to manuscript-reading nuns, and they held great cultural and religious significance too. So, it should come as no surprise that riddles were written about them. One early riddler, Symphosius, wrote a lantern riddle (Symphosius Riddle 67). Another, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, wrote a riddle on the candle (Aldhelm Riddle 52).

Like many other Bern riddles, we are expected to guess the identity if the speaker’s mother and father. The obvious choice for a father is fire (ignis), whose flickering form is different to the shining appearance of the lamp. The “old mother” (vetus mater) is a bit trickier. She could be heat (calor) or a candle (candela) from which it is lit, since both of which are grammatically feminine. Another possibility is the olive (oliva) from which the fuel is made. The “seed” (germen) from which the lamp is formed is probably the “spark” (scintilla) from which it is lit.

Line 4 tells us that the flame comes from an “open mouth” (patulo… ore). This would strongly suggest an oil lamp, which burns its fuel using a wick, which sticks out of a hole in the lamp’s body.

Roman oil lamp
Roman oil lamp from the Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona. Photo (by Ángel M. Felicísimo) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 2.0)

Line 5 explains that the lamp is useless if it gets extinguished by the wind or rain. To protext their flames from the elements, lamps were sometimes housed in storm-lanterns constructed from glass or thin, scraped animal horn. Isidore of Seville mentions glass lanterns in his 7th century encyclopedia, The Etymologies (page 402). Similarly, Alfred the Great’s bibliographer, Asser, tells an elaborate story of how Alfred is said to have ordered a special lantern to be made of wood and ox-horn, since his candle-clock kept on being blown out by the wind (Keynes and Lapidge, page 108). Alfred was certainly not the first person to think of this—horn lamps were used from antiquity. The oldest example in Britain was discovered in the summer of 2010, when a metal detector enthusiast found a bronze Roman lamp in a field near Sunbury, Suffolk. Originally, this lantern would have been surrounded by a thin layer of scraped horn.

But why am I talking about storm-lanterns here? After all, they are conspicuously absent in Bern Riddle 2. Well, the lamp is trying to draw our attention to another riddle, Bern Riddle 59. This riddle depicts the moon as if it were a lantern, protected by a special “shell” (testudo). The shell protects it from “rain, snow, frost, ice, and lightning” (imber, nix, pruina, glacies… fulgora) (line 5). When we read the two riddles together, we see that the moon—which is unaffected by the weather—is a better source of light than the lamp is!

Crescent moon
Crescent or “horned” moon. Photo (by Nirupam Sarker) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)

It gets even more complicated when you realise that this is also a response to another riddle, Symphosius Riddle 67, which depicts a lantern as if it were the moon. The conceit is that the lantern is made of horn and the moon is “horned.” We will return to this riddle in the commentary for Bern Riddle 59.

The final line of Bern Riddle 2 is also speaking to yet another riddle. It calls the lamp a ‘friend of light’ (amica lucis). This phrase is also used (in a very different way) to describe the papyrus in Bern Riddle 27. Papyrus was a common wicking material in lamps—filling the hole of line 4.

So, there we have it! Riddle 2 starts off with the puzzle of the lamp’s parentage, and it ends with a series of intertextual puzzles. And this is one of the fascinating things about medieval riddles—they are always whispering to each other. And if we listen carefully, we can hear them chatter.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Isidore of Seville. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Edited by Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and Oliver Berghof. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Keynes, Simon and Lapidge, Michael, eds. and trans. Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.

Mogford, Neville. “The Moon and Stars in the Bern and Eusebius Riddles” in Riddles at Work in the Early Medieval Tradition: Words, Ideas, Interactions. Edited by Megan Cavell and Jennifer Neville. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020.

Symphosius, “Riddle 67” in The Aenigmata: An introduction, Text, and Commentary. Edited by T. J. Leary (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), pages 47 & 183-4.



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Bern Riddle 2: De lucerna
Bern Riddle 58: De luna

Commentary for Bern Riddle 3: De sale

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 18 Dec 2020
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 3: De sale

For this riddle, we turn to sodium chloride—or plain ol’ salt.

For the third riddle in a row, we are asked to work out who the father and the mother are in the opening lines. The father is probably the sun, who heats up the sea water, leaving a residue of salt. The mother is the sea water (aqua marina), who ‘gives away’ salt-marks with the ebbing tide. Thus, salt is the child of a curious marriage between two opposing elements—fire and water. The riddler may have also had an etymological connection in mind—according to Isidore, some people thought that sal (‘salt’) was derived from salum (“ocean”) and sol (“sun”) (Isidore, Etymologies, page 318).

Lines 3 and 4 play upon the dissolving and precipitating of salt in water—the Latin words used are solvere (‘to loosen’) and constingere (‘to tie up’) from which we get the modern words ‘solution’ and ‘constrict.’ The processes of binding and unbinding are often used in riddle descriptions, probably because they can also describe the process of composing (“binding”) and solving (“unbinding”) riddles. For example, the mousetrap in Bern Riddle 40 is described as soluta (“unbound”) when it is not set to catch mice.

Lines 5 and 6 focus on the usefulness of salt for humans. Salt was used extensively as a flavouring and as a food preservative for food during the Middle Ages. Cheeses, meats, fish, and many vegetables could all be salted and then stored for several weeks or even months. In a world without fridges, this made salt an indispensable resource for many communities, and so the salt industry and trade were extremely important. So much so, in fact, that this riddle tells us that a country cannot flourish without it. Salt was also used to prevent cadavers from swelling—and this explains the reference to the deceased in line 5.

This is certainly not the most original or inventive riddle in the Bern collection—it is not as playfully metaphorical or outlandishly weird as some of the others. But it does tell us a lot about the importance of salt in early medieval Europe. It also still manages to disguise its subject in some very creative ways… and no riddle worth its salt would do otherwise.

Salt 2
“Medieval salt.” Photo by Neville Mogford.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Isidore of Seville. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Edited by Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and Oliver Berghof. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Winferfeld, Paul. “Observationes criticalae.” Philologus vol. 53 (1899), pages 289-95.



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Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula

Commentary for Bern Riddle 4: De scamno

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 18 Dec 2020
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 4: De scamno

Imagine you are a lovely horse. You happily grow old in your stable, and you like to carry people on your back. But you don’t like being kicked, wearing bridles, or walking on soft ground. Then, one fateful day, you catch a glimpse of yourself in a mirror and—to your horror!—you discover that you aren’t a horse at all. You are… a wooden bench!

Horsebench
“A real-life horse-bench by the artist Lucy Casson.” Photo (by Neville Mogford) from Geograph (licence: CC BY-SA 2.0)

This is one of my all-time favourite riddles. It describes a stool or bench that thinks it is a horse. It begins by talking about soft or squishy places (mollibus locis), which makes one think of the difficulties that horses can have in marshy ground. The verb consistere (“to stand”) can also mean to harden or solidify, which seems to be the link with the previous riddle on salt.

So far, so horsey.

But then lines 3 and 4 complicate things, by describing a special kind of ‘horse’ who goes out riding without a human rider, and yet loves to carry people in the stable. Line 5 explains that the bench is tame, since it will never buck its rider, and yet obstinate, in that it does not accept a harness. The final line uses the idea of kicking a mature horse (it is unclear whether this refers to the use of the spurs of a form of animal abuse) to describe the damage that can be incurred on furniture from swinging heels.

Riddles like this one are all about seeing one thing as if it were another. Like all metaphors, they are based around common features. One can find this technique in all kinds of riddles from all kinds of places and periods. Among the most innovative examples I have come across recently are a modern Yorùbá riddle from western Africa that describes a road as a coffin and travellers as corpses (Akinyemi, page 37), an ancient Greek riddle that describes a flute as a ship and the fingers as sailors (The Greek Anthology, page 35, number 14), and a medieval Persian riddle that depicts a jar of beer as a beautiful woman (Seyed-Gohrab, page 30).

In the case of Bern Riddle 4, several common features are mentioned: horses and benches are both sat upon, they both have a ‘home’ inside etc. The most obvious similarity between the two—that horses and benches have four feet—is not mentioned. The riddle also mentions dissimilar features. These are used to reveal that the eccentric horse is actually a bench. In this way, the riddle is a little bit like an optical illusion such as the famous “duck-rabbit” image.

DuckRabbit
“Duck Rabbit. Image (by unknown) from Wikipedia Original from the 23rd October 1892 issue of Fliegende Blätter.”

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

The Greek Anthology, Books 13-16. Edited and translated by W. R. Paton, Vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library 86. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1918, pages 25-108.

Akínyẹmí, Akíntúndé. Orature and Yorùbá Riddles. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015.

Seyed-Gohrab, A. A. Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010.



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Bern Riddle 4: De scamno

Commentary for Riddle 5: De mensa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 18 Dec 2020
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 5: De mensa

Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child.
William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4 (lines 278-81).

The pages of English literature are filled with stories of put-upon parents and their thankless children. But I doubt that there are any other examples where the parent has four legs and is made of wood. This innovative riddle transforms the description of a dining table into a tragic lament about filial ingratitude—the human “children” greedily use the table for dinner, before clearing it and putting it away.

Riddle 5 is the first Bern riddle where the parent is speaking, rather than the children—and her speech is laced with emotion. Just as Bern Riddle 4 made us sympathise with the poor bench who is kicked, so Bern Riddle 5 makes us feel sorry for the neglected table, whose fond memories of her infant children contrast with the undeserved abuses that they now heap upon her.

According to Mercedes Salvador-Bello (pages 222-4), the riddle plays upon an established literary tradition of personifying wisdom as a breastfeeding mother. Similar tropes appear in several other riddles. Perhaps the earliest example is found in the Pseudo-Bedean Collectanea, an early medieval collection of 388 texts of different kinds, which probably dates from the eighth century.

Dic mihi, quaeso, quae est illa mulier, quae innumeris filiis ubera porrigit, quae quantum sucta fuerit, tantum inundat?
Tell me please—who is the mother who offers her breasts to innumerable children, and who gives flow as much as she is sucked?
Collectanea Pseudo-Bedae, page 122.

The answer is sapientia (“wisdom”), who offers the milk of knowledge that her “children” need for their intellectual growth.

Nursing Madonna
“The Nursing Madonna by Bartolomeo Vivarini (c. 1450). Photograph (by Sailko) from Wikipedia Commons(licence: CC BY 3.0)

Depictions of wisdom as a breastfeeding mother appear in several early Irish texts from the 7th and 9th centuries, as well as in another riddle from the 11th, the Bibliotheca magnifica de sapientia collection (Salvador-Bello, pages 216-221). Other riddles play with the motif in different ways. For example, in his riddle on terra (“earth”), Aldhelm depicts the soil as a “nursemaid” (altrix) who feeds all the world (Aldhelm Riddle 1). But the closest analogue to Bern Riddle 5 is another table riddle, Tatwine Riddle 29. Tatwine depicts his table in a similar way—as a generous, well-dressed lady who is stripped and robbed, and whose nudata… membra (“naked limbs,” line 5) are left behind. However, in Tatwine’s riddle, the woman seems to be depicted as a prostitute rather than a nursemaid (Salvador-Bello, page 223-4).

The meaning of the last line is slightly uncertain. Firstly, does “per angula” mean that the children tip their mother on her side or in a corner? Secondly, does “nudata me pede… versant” mean that the table was completely naked (“they tipped me over, naked, by foot”) or merely barefoot (“they turned me over, naked in foot”)? Fortunately, these different readings do not affect the meaning too much.

So, there you have it. Riddles love ideas of overthrow and change, and this one is no exception. The table-mother rears her children with kindness, but they soon grow up and the tables are turned—literally!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Röösli, Samuel. “The Pot, the Broom, and Other Humans: Concealing Material Objects in the Bern Riddles.” In Secrecy and Surveillance in Medieval and Early Modern England. Edited by Annette Kern-Stähler & Nicole Nyffenegger. Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature (SPELL), Vol. 37 (Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2020), pages 87-104.

Salvador-Bello, Mercedes. “The Nursemaid, the Mother, and the Prostitute: Tracing an Insular Riddle Topos on Both Sides of the English Channel” in Riddles at Work in the Early Medieval Tradition: Words, Ideas, Interactions. Edited by Megan Cavell and Jennifer Neville. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020.

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Edited by R. A. Foakes. London: The Arden Shakespeare, 1997.

Collectanea Pseudo-Bedae. Edited by Martha Bayless and Michael Lapidge. Scriptes Latini Hiberniae Vol. XIV. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1998.



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Bern Riddle 5: De mensa

Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 01 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula
Original text:
Vinculis extensa multos conprendo vagantes
Et soluta nullum queo conprendere pastum.
Venter mihi nullus, quo possint capta reponi,
Sed multa pro membris formantur ora tenendi.
Opes mihi non sunt, sursum si pendor ad auras,
Nam fortuna mihi manet, si tensa dimittor.
Translation:
When stretched out with bonds, I capture many wanderers,
and when unfastened, I can trap no food.
I have no belly in which prey might be stored,
but many mouths are made to catch limbs.
I have no wealth if I am hung up in the air,
but if I will possess much if am left stretched out.
Click to show riddle solution?
Mousetrap


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 751.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 586.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 41: De vento

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 01 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 41: De vento
Original text:
Velox curro nascens grandi virtute sonorus;
Deprimo nam fortes, infirmos adlevo sursum.
Os est mihi nullum, dente nec vulnero quemquam,
Mordeo sed cunctos silvis campisque morantes.
Cernere me quisquam nequit aut nectere vinclis;
Macedo nec Liber vicit nec Hercules umquam.
Translation:
Growing up, I run swift and loud with great strength;
I push down the strong and I raise up the weak.
I have no mouth and I do not wound anyone with teeth,
but I bite everyone lingering in the fields and forests.
No one can see me nor chain me up.
The Macedonian never defeated me, nor did Liber, nor Hercules.
Click to show riddle solution?
Wind


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 751.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 587.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 42: De glacie

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 01 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 42: De glacie
Original text:
Arte me nec ulla valet durescere quisquam.
Efficior dura, multosque facio molles.
Cuncti me solutam cara per oscula gaudent
Et nemo constrictam manu vel tangere cupit.
Speciem mi pulchram dat turpi rigidus auctor,
Qui eius ab ira iubet turpiscere pulchros.
Translation:
No one can harden me by any art.
I am formed hard and I make many soft.
When I am dissolved, everyone praises me with dear kisses,
and when I am bound up, no one wishes to touch me by hand.
A stern creator gives a beautiful form to ugly me;
out of his wrath, he orders the beautiful to become ugly.
Click to show riddle solution?
Ice


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 751.

Lines 1 and 2 follow the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 588.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 43: De vermicolis siricis formatis

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 43: De vermicolis siricis formatis
Original text:
Innumeros concepta mitto de nido volatus
Corpus et inmensum parvis adsumo de membris.
Mollibus de plumis vestem contexo nitentem
Et texturae sonum aure nec concipit ullus.
Si quis forte meo videtur vellere tectus,
Protinus excussam vestem reicere temptat.
Translation:
Made pregnant, I send various flying creatures from the nest
and I take a huge body from small limbs.
I weave a shining garment from soft strands,
and no one hears any weaving.
If anyone happens to be covered by my wool,
they immediately struggle to cast off my discarded garment.
Click to show riddle solution?
Silkworm


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 752.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 589.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 44: De margarita

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 44: De margarita
Original text:
Conspicuum corpus arte mirifica sumpsi;
Multis cava modis gemmarum ordine nector.
Publicis concepta locis in abdito nascor.
Vacua do lucem, referta confero lucrum.
Nullum mihi frigus valet nec bruma vilescit,
Sed calore semper molli sopita fatigor.
Translation:
I have acquired a remarkable body by wondrous artifice.
Hollow, I am related to the order of gems in many ways.
Conceived in public places, I am born in secret.
Empty, I give light; full, I give wealth.
Cold cannot overcome me, nor can winter cheapen me,
but when lulled to sleep, I am always worn down by a gentle warmth.
Click to show riddle solution?
Pearl


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 752.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 590.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 45: De terra

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 45: De terra
Original text:
Os est mihi patens crebroque tunditur ictu;
Reddo libens omnes escas, quas sumpsero lambens.
Nulla mihi fames sitimque sentio nullam,
Et ieiuna mihi semper praecordia restant.
Omnibus ad escam miros efficio sapores
Gelidumque mihi durat per secula corpus.
Translation:
My mouth is open and frequently beaten;
I willingly return all the food that I have eaten up.
I feel no hunger nor thirst,
And yet my belly is always hungry.
I add amazing tastes to food for everyone
and my cold body lasts throughout the ages.
Click to show riddle solution?
Earth


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 752.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 591.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 46: De malleo

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 46: De malleo
Original text:
Una mihi toto cervix pro corpore constat,
Et duo libenter nascuntur capita collo.
Versa mihi pedum vice dum capita currunt,
Lenes reddo vias, calle quas tero frequenti.
Nullus mihi comam tondet nec pectine versat:
Vertice nitenti plures per oscula gaudent.
Translation:
My whole body is one neck,
and two heads grow happily from this neck.
When my heads are upside down and travel by foot,
I make smooth roads, which I rub into a well-used path.
No one cuts my hair, nor do they comb it:
Many are pleased by the kisses from my shining top.
Click to show riddle solution?
Hammer


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 753.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 592.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 47: De cochlea

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 47: De cochlea
Original text:
Aspera, dum nascor, cute producor a matre
Et adulta crescens leni circumdor amictu.
Sonitum intacta magnum de ventre produco
Et corrupta tacens vocem non profero ullam.
Nullus in amore certo me diligit unquam,
Nudam nisi tangat vestemque tulerit omnem.
Translation:
I am born from my mother with hard skin,
and as a growing adult, I am surrounded by a soft cloak.
Intact, I make a great noise from my belly,
and when damaged, I am silent and I produce no voice.
No one ever truly loves me
unless they touch me when I am naked, having taken away all my clothing.
Click to show riddle solution?
Sea-snail


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 753.

The putative title ("De cochlea") is taken from Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 593.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 48: De castanea

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 48: De castanea
Original text:
Quattuor has ego conclusa gero figuras,
Pandere quas paucis deposcit ratio verbis:
Humida sum sicca, subtili corpore crassa,
Dulcis et amara, duro gestamine mollis.
Dulcis esse nulli possum nec crescere iuste,
Nisi sub amaro duroque carcere nascar.
Translation:
In total, I bear these four aspects,
which logic requires to be unfolded in a few words:
I am wet and dry, fat with a slim body,
bitter and sweet, and soft with a hard outfit.
I cannot be sweet to anyone, nor can I grow properly,
unless I am born within a hard, bitter prison.
Click to show riddle solution?
Chestnut


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 753.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 594.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 49: De pluvia

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 49: De pluvia
Original text:
Mirantibus cunctis nascens infligo querelas.
Efficior statim maior a patre qui nascor.
Me gaudere nullus potest, si terrae coaequor;
Superas me cuncti laetantur carpere vias.
Inproba amara diffundo pocula totis,
Et videre quanti volunt tantique refutant.
Translation:
As I arise, I force complaints from everyone who wonders at me.
I am born and immediately become greater than my father.
No one can praise me if I am level with the earth;
everyone is happy when I take high roads.
When I am violent, I pour out bitter cups upon all,
and as many want to see me as despise me.
Click to show riddle solution?
Rain


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 754.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 595.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 50: De vino

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 50: De vino | Commentary for Bern Riddle 50A: De charta
Original text:
Innumeris ego nascor de matribus unum,
Genitum qui nullum vivum relinquo parentem.
Multa me nascente subportant vulnera matres,
Quarum mihi mors est potestas data per omnes.
Laedere non possum, me si quis oderit, umquam
Et iniqua reddo me quoque satis amanti.
Translation:
Single, I am born from countless mothers,
and when created, I leave no living parent behind.
As I am born, my mothers receive many wounds,
and their death gives me power over everyone.
I cannot ever hurt anyone if they hate me,
and I also harm those who love me well enough.
Click to show riddle solution?
Wine


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 754.

Line 1 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 596.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 50A: De charta

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 50: De vino | Commentary for Bern Riddle 50A: De charta
Original text:
Multimodo matris divellor opere membris
Et truncata multum reddor de minimo maior.
Fateor intacta firmis consistere plantis,
Opera nullius virgo momenti relinquo.
Solida disiungor, rursum soluta reformor,
Quae secura meis creduntur liquida membris.
Translation:
I am torn apart from the limbs of my mother in many ways
and, mutilated, I am remade very large from very tiny.
When whole, I confess that I am made from firm shoots,
And as a virgin, I leave behind works of no importance.
When solid, I am divided, and when loose, I am reshaped again.
I am trusted to keep liquid safe in my limbs.
Click to show riddle solution?
Papyrus sheet


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 754.

The putative title ("De charta") and Line 6 follow Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 597.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 51: De alio

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 51: De alio
Original text:
Multiplici veste natus de matre producor
Nec habere corpus possum, si vestem amitto.
Meos, unde nascor, in venre fero parentes,
Vivo nam sepultus, vitam et inde resumo.
Superis eductus nec umquam crescere possum,
Dum natura caput facit succedere plantis.
Translation:
I am born from a mother, I am made with a complex garment,
and I cannot have a body if I lose my clothing.
I carry my parents, who created me, in my belly,
for I live buried and come back to life there.
Once born, I can can never grow high
as long as nature puts my head under my feet.
Click to show riddle solution?
Garlic


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 755.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 598.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 52: De rosa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 02 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary on Bern Riddle 52: De rosa
Original text:
Mollis ego duros de corde genero natos;
In conceptu numquam amplexu viri delector.
Sed dum infra meis concrescunt fili latebris,
Meum quisque nascens disrumpit vulnere corpus.
Postquam decorato velantes tegmine matrem
Saepe delicati frangunt acumine fortes.
Translation:
Soft, I make hard children from my heart.
During conception, I never enjoy the embrace of a man.
But while my sons grow in my secret places,
each one breaks my body with a wound as they are born.
After that, wrapping the mother in a decorative covering,
the delicate often break the strong with a spike.
Click to show riddle solution?
Rose


Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 53: De trutina

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 03 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 53: De trutina
Original text:
Venter mihi nullus, infra praecordia nulla,
Tenui nam semper feror in corpore sicca.
Cibum nulli quaero, ciborum milia servans.
Loco currens uno lucrum ac confero damnum.
Duo mihi membra tantum in corpore pendunt,
Similemque gerunt caput et planta figuram.
Translation:
I have no belly and no guts inside,
for when dry, I am always carried in a thin body.
When storing a thousand kinds of food, I ask no one for food.
When running in one place, I grant profit and loss.
Only two limbs hang on my body,
and my head and feet have the same form.
Click to show riddle solution?
Scales (?)


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 755.

The putative title ("De trutina") and line 1 follow Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 600.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 54: De insubulis

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 04 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 54: De insubulis
Original text:
Duo generantur multo sub numero fratres,
Nomine sub uno divisus quisque natura.
Pauper atque dives pari labore premuntur.
Pauper semper habet divesque saepe requiret.
Caput illis nullum, sed os cum corpore cingunt.
Nam stantes nihil, sed iacentes plurima portant.
Translation:
Two brothers are born under a great number,
and each is distinguished by nature under one name.
Rich and poor are pushed down by an equal effort.
The poor always has and the rich often needs.
They have no head, but rather their body surrounds their mouth.
Standing, they carry nothing, but lying down, they carry a great deal.
Click to show riddle solution?
Loom beams (?)


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 756.

Line 6 follows Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 601. The title, De insubulis, is the plural form of Glorie's De insubulo.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 55: De sole

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 04 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 55: De sole
Original text:
Semine nec ullo patris creata renascor,
Ubera nec matris suxi, quo crescere possem,
Uberibusque meis ego saepe reficio multos.
Vestigia nulla figens perambulo terras.
Anima nec caro mihi nec cetera membra.
Aligeras tamen reddo temporibus umbras.
Translation:
I am reborn, but I was not created from a father’s seed,
nor did I suck from a mother’s teat, so that I might grow,
and I often replenish many with my ‘breasts.’
I walk about the earth leaving no footsteps.
I have no soul, nor flesh, nor limbs.
Nevertheless, at times I give shadows wings.
Click to show riddle solution?
The Sun or a cloud.


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 756.

Line 3 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 602.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 56: De sole

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 04 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 56: De sole
Original text:
Una mihi soror, unus et ego sorori.
Coniux illa mihi, huius et ego maritus,
Nam numquam uno sed multorum coniungimur ambo,
Sed de longe meam praegnantem reddo sororem.
Quotquot illa suo gignit ex utero partus,
Cunctos uno reddo tectos de peplo nepotes.
Translation:
I have one sister, and my sister has one of me.
She is my wife, and I am her husband,
for we are never married, but rather are separated,
and from afar I render my sister pregnant.
No matter how many babies she produces from her belly,
I deliver all the children, covered with a single robe.
Click to show riddle solution?
The Sun


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 756.

The title and line 3 follow Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 603.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 57: De sole

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 04 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 57: De sole
Original text:
Prohibeor solus noctis videre tenebras
Et absconse ducor longa per avia fugiens.
Nulla mihi velox avis inventa volatu,
Cum videar nullas gestare corpore pennas.
Vix auferre praedam me coram latro valebit.
Publica per diem dum semper competa curro.
Translation:
I alone am prevented from seeing the night’s shadows,
and when hidden, I am led speeding through the remote wilderness.
No swift bird is found when I fly
since I appear to bear no feathers on my body.
A robber will scarcely dare to carry off plunder in my presence
when I pass the public crossroads each day.
Click to show riddle solution?
The Sun


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 757.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 604.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 58: De luna

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 04 Dec 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 58: De luna
Original text:
Assiduo multas vias itinere currens
Corpore defecta velox conprendo senectam.
Versa vice rursum conpellor ire deorsum
Et ab ima redux trahor conscendere sursum.
Sed cum mei parvum cursus conplevero tempus,
Infantia pars est simul et curva senectus.
Translation:
Running many roads on a regular journey,
swift, I count old age on a declining body.
On the one hand, I am forced to go downwards
and on the other, returning from the depths, I am dragged back up.
But when I have completed the short time of my course,
the measure is at once infancy and crooked old age.
Click to show riddle solution?
The Moon


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 737-8.

"Rursum" (line 3) is preferred to Streckler's and Glorie's "rerum," as per Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611, f. 79r.

A list of variant readings can be found in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 547.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles