Riddle Ages

Commentary for Bern Riddle 10: De scala

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 13 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 10: De scala

Some riddles are more straightforward than others. But what about those riddles where it is not clear whether we are supposed to read them literally or figuratively? Well, this is one of them.

I have translated the title of this riddle as ‘On the ladder.’ However, it seems to be referring to a single rung or step, or perhaps the side-rail of a ladder. The riddle-creature explains that if she lived alone, then she could not go upon the directam viam (“straight path”). However, when joined with her twin sister—twin because they are identical—they allow everyone an iter velox (“speedy journey”) all the way to the top.

The riddle echoes several other Bern riddles. The opening line about “firm feet” (firma planta) recalls the “squishy places” of the extra-brilliant  Riddle 4 and its eccentric horse-bench. Similarly, the closing two lines are reminiscent of the final line of Riddle 4, when the horse-bench explains that he dislikes being kicked. In this case, if the ladder is to be used, she must put up with having its feet stood on all the time. The “firm places” trope also turns up in the fish riddle, Riddle 30.



“Jacob and the ladder of angels, Cunradus Schlapperitzi, 1445. Image from the New York Public Library (© public domain).


 

I mentioned at the start of this commentary that I am not sure how straightforward this riddle is. The question is whether the ladder just represents a ladder, or whether it has a deeper and more spiritual significance. On the one hand, there is no overt religious message in the riddle. It could be all about a very ordinary, bog-standard ladder. The riddle tells us that people use the ladder to reach what they want—perhaps the fruit or honey mentioned in nearby riddles. On the other hand, it might suggest the occasion in the Book of Genesis when the patriarch Jacob dreamt of a ladder or stairway leading from earth to heaven, with angels travelling up and down it (Genesis 28:12). In medieval exegesis, the ladder was an allegory for the path to heaven that the faithful must take, with the steps representing the piety, virtues, or ascetic struggles that led there.

 

I will leave you with this question: is the ladder supposed to be understood literally or figuratively? Or perhaps both? Is it is the kind of ladder you’d find in a shed, or is it an allegorical stairway to heaven.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Grypeou, Emmanouela and Spurling, Helen. The Book of Genesis in Late Antiquity: Encounters between Jewish and Christian Exegesis. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Pages 289-322.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 4: De scamno
Bern Riddle 10: De scala
Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 10

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 21 Jun 2021

Matching Riddle: Lorsch Riddle 10

Whoever would have thought that such a sunny riddle could also be so dark! This clever little riddle juxtaposes grim images of theft, murder and execution with splendid chapel lamps and the sun.
Lamps and other light sources are common riddling subjects. For example, Bern Riddle 2 is all about an oil lamp. The anonymous late antique riddler who is known to us as Symphosius (the name literally means “party-guy!”) wrote a riddle (No. 67) about a lantern. And the seventh century churchman and poet, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, wrote a riddle on the candle (No. 52). Today’s riddle describes a lamp used in a church, possibly a sanctuary lamp that was hung in front of the altar, as per the instruction of God to the Israelites to burn an oil lamp in the Tabernacle in Exodus 27:20-21. 

”Sanctuary lamp from the Basílica de São Sebastião, Salvador, Brazil. Photo (by Paul R. Burley) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


                                                                                                                                    
The riddle begins with the lamp denying that it is a robber or a killer. Playing on the connection between night and criminality, it explains that, although it is up all night, it goes about its business in a completely-innocent-and-not-at-all-nefarious way. Yeah, sure, lamp—I believe you!
Line 3 then introduces a twist—the lamp hangs from the ceiling in laqueo… longo (“on a long noose”) as if it were an executed criminal. There were many crimes potentially punishable by death in early medieval England, including counterfeiting and treason, as well as robbery and theft. Archaeological evidence shows that decapitation was a common of execution, but hanging was also used, and several law codes refer to it. For example, in a supplementary code covering the administration of justice in London, King Æthelstan explains that hanging is appropriate for repeat thieves under the age of fifteen, if they have not kept the oath that they were forced to swear after their first offence:
Gif he þonne ofer þæt stalie, slea man hine oððe ho, swa man þa yldran aer dyde.


[If he then steals after that, he will be decapitated or hung, just as his elders will have been.]


–VI Æthelstan, 12.1 (page 183).


So, hanging was a fairly common punishment for crimes that we would consider to be minor today. Interestingly, a reference to hanging also appears in another riddle, Bern Riddle 57, which links the daily passage of the sun across the celestial meridian with the thief’s fate upon the crossroad gallows. The two riddles are not at all identical, but they do seem to be drawing upon the same themes and motifs.

”A thirteenth century illustration of a hanging during The Anarchy by Matthew Parris, from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 016, folio 64r. Photo from Parker Library On the Web (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


                                                                                                                                    
Line 4 and 5 explain that burning the lamp creates light. The riddle uses a word common in other riddle collections, but which crops up only once in Lorsch: viscera (“insides”). You can read my commentaries on Bern Riddles 11 and 32 for more examples of this. Perhaps this “burning of the insides” hints at the torture of criminals, which is occasionally mentioned in early medieval sources, although many of the more gruesome tortures that we might think of as quintessentially medieval date from the High and Late Middle Ages or the early modern period.
 
”The sun lights up the whitewashed walls of the pre-Conquest Priory Church, Deerhurst. Photo (by Chris Gunns) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 2.0)”


                                                                                                                                    
The final lines depict the lamp as if it were the dawning sun. The egregiam aulam (“excellent palace”) and the sacellum (“chapel”) are the church in which the lamp is hanging. In medieval literature, the world is often depicted microcosmically as a church, with the sky as its roof and the sun and stars as the lamps. For example, in his engaging, ninth century account of an anonymous monastery, the poet Æthelwulf describes the roof of his chapel thus:
Ut celum rutilat stellis fulgentibus omne,

Sic tremulas vibrant subter testudine templi

Ordinibus variis funalia pendula flammas.


[Just as the whole sky shines with glittering stars, so hanging ropes swing the quivering flames under the church roof in several ranks.]


Æthelwulf, De abbatibus, 623-5


We can also see this “church as sky” idea today, when we visit many churches and cathedrals and look up at the rich ultramarines and yellows that decorate their vaulted roofs and pagodas.
I do wonder whether the writer intended the riddle to have a hidden, allegorical aspect to it, where the lamp represents Christ in some way. Just like Christ, the lamp is not a criminal, but is treated as if it were one. Moreover, the dawning sun is often associated with the Second Coming of Christ, most notably in the Pauline epistles. Certainly, allegory in riddles is nothing new—in fact, Aldhelm is a master of it!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the riddle. I will leave you with the happy news that a burglar recently stole all my lamps. Why is this happy news? Well, it might have been a shady business, but it also left me completely de-lighted.

Notes:

“VI Aethelstan.“ In Felix Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen. Halle: Max Neimeyer, 1903. Pages 173-83. Available online here.

Mattison, Alyxandra. The Execution and Burial of Criminals in Early Medieval England, c. 850-1150. PhD thesis. University of Sheffield. 2016. Available online here.

Marafioti, Nicole & Gates, Jay Paul. "Introduction: Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England." In Nicole Marafioti & Jay Paul Gates (eds.), Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2014. Pages 1-16.

Tags: latin

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 2: De lucerna

Bern Riddle 11: De nave

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 11: De nave

Original text:

Mortua maiorem vivens quam porto laborem.

Dum iaceo, multos servo; si stetero, paucos.

Viscera si mihi foris detracta patescant,

Vitam fero cunctis victumque confero multis.

Bestia defunctam avisque nulla me mordet,

Et onusta currens viam nec planta depingo.

Translation:

Dead, I carry a greater burden than alive.

When I lay down, I store many; if I am upright, few.

If my insides are removed and revealed,

I bring food to everyone and nourishment to many.

When dead, no beast or bird bites me,

and when laden and moving, I leave no footprint on the road.

Click to show riddle solution?

Ship

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 741.

Line 5 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 557.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Lorsch Riddle 11

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 23 Apr 2021

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 11

Original text:

Quando fui iuvenis, bis binis fontibus hausi.

Postquam consenui, montes vallesque de imis

Sedibus evertens naturae iura rescidi. 

Post misero fato torpenti morte tabescens,

Mortuus horrende vivorum stringo lacertos,

Necnon humanis praebens munimina plantis

Frigoris a rigidis inlaesas reddo pruinis.

Sic mea diversis variantur fata sub annis.

Translation:

When I was young, I drank from four fountains. 

After I grew old, I cut open mountains and valleys 

from the deepest places, overturning the laws of nature. 

After wasting away to the wretched fate of stiffening death, 

now deceased, I bind the arms of the living horribly, 

and I also provide defences for human feet, 

preserving them from the stiff frost of winter. 

In these ways, my fates are transformed in the changing years.

Click to show riddle solution?

Ox, bull

Notes:

This edition is based on Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatinus latinus 1753, folio 117v. You can find images of this manuscript here.

Tags: latin

Boniface Riddle 11: Cupiditas ait

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 26 Jul 2021

Original text:

Cernebam tetrum lustrans per saecula monstrum

Visibus horrendum, nec dictu effabile quodam,

Pignora purpureo maculat quod sanguine terrae.

In varia caedes mortalia pectora cogens,

5  Dira fremens saevo passim cum murmure Martis

Ignea inferni animabus Tartara complet.

Terrigenasque tamen demulcet mente dolosa,

Auri materiem et fulvo splendore metalla

Sumant ut pretium, trucidato fratre gemello,

10  Aut gnatus auro bibat, genitore perempto.

Insane sapiunt homines, quia belua maligna est,

Tot tantosque viros multis cum matribus una 

Tetrica crudelis trudens ad limina Ditis.

Haud secus alloquitur mortales ore superbo

15  Bestia pinnipotens: “dominans sum finibus orbis,

Horrendam dicunt me omnes, sed famine ficto,

Carior at multis conprobor lumine vitae.

Ast ego infesta crudelior hostibus omnes

Invisos habeo, et cum strofa sternere nitor.

20  Non quisquam in terris numerus aut calculus aequat,

Milia quot passim strofosa morte peremi.

Reges et proceres docui temerare premendo

Foedera atque pares pariter propriosque propinquos.

Haud secus ut populi perdant sua iura minores.

25  Pontifices multos temptans per devia duxi,

Candida ut meritis non scandant atria caeli,

Presbiterosque simul vastans per lucra peremi,

Ordinibus sacris degentes sterno phalanges,

cum semel adgrediens comitabor fraude monachos.

30  Cetera feminei sexus seu turma virorum

Si mihi consentit mortalia grana serenti,

Perpetuae perdet mercedis lucra perennis,

Horrida pestiferis cumulat tormenta maniplis.

Divitis et cuius propria dominabor in aula,

35  Sollicitus pauper fit rebus semper egenus,

Nequicquam dapibus saecli saturatur opimis,

Et mentis longa merendo pace carebit,

Omnes magnanime spernit virtutis amicos.

Iustitiaeque fidem et pacem depello serenam,

40  Et Christi humilitas longe disperditur a me.

Sanctorum mansit numquam patientia mecum,

Misericordia non umquam mea tecta videbat,

Semper me horrescens fugiet dilectio sancta.

Natas priscorum clamant has carmina vatum

45  Regis caelorum summa qui regnat in arce,

Quas ego invisas damnando semper habebam.

Qui me bachantem sua subter tecta recondit,

Concito caede furens, irarum maxima mater,

Alter ut alterius fratres sua viscera rumpant.

50  Conditor excelsus, dudum qui saecla creavit,

Non me formavit pariter sub lege creandi,

Sed priscus dudum in paradiso viscere natrix

Edidit invisam superis sub fraude maligna.

Inlicio plures stolidos me amare ferocem,

55  Dulcius ut mulsum quaerant quam nectaris haustum.

Quique tenet strictim strofosis actibus unam,

Amplius in sceptris mundi invitatur habere.

Non quod cernit habet caecatis mentibus errans,

Nec suus est proprius, sed sic mihi servus habetur.

60  Athletis Orci dicor “dulcissima virgo,”

Caelicolae econtra vocitant me “pessima belua,”

Quod plures populos mordens sub Tartara trusi.

Audivi quendam procerum dixisse priorum,

Inlustrem factis, famoso nomine Paulum,

65  Cunctorum stirpem et causam me esse malorum.

Prendere hunc mihi si traderet arbiter orbis,

Mordendo trepidi tremerent sub dentibus artus.

Translation:

I saw a foul monster roaming throughout the world

terrible to the eye and completely unspeakable,

and who stains the children of the earth with deep red blood

forcing mortal hearts into various murders,

5  and, roaring fearfully with the cruel growl of Mars,

it fills fiery, Tartarian hell with souls.

Yet it seduces the earth-dwellers with its cunning intelligence

to accept things of gold and metals with a golden glow

as payment after they have killed their twin brother,

10  or so that a child drinks from gold, having murdered their father.

Humans fall into madness, because the monster is evil,

shoving so many and such great men, together with many mothers,

across the fierce boundary of cruel Dis. 

In the same way, the strong-winged beast addresses mortals 

15  with haughty speech: “I rule to the limits of the earth,

and everyone calls me terrible, but with their lies,

yet I prove dearer to many than the light of life.

But, troublesome and crueller than other enemies,

I hate everyone, and I strive to destroy them with trickery.

20  No number or calculation on earth is equal 

to the thousand or more I have destroyed everywhere with deceitful death.

I have led kings and princes violently to dishonour 

contracts, and their own kin and counterparts too.

In the same way, lower peoples may destroy their own laws.

25  I have tempted many bishops and led them into error,

so that they do not ascend to the bright halls of heaven.

Likewise, I have extinguished and annihilated priests through greed, 

and I strike down legions of those who live in holy orders

whenever I meet monks and serve them deceitfully.

30  If the remaining group, both of women and men,

join with me, who sows deadly seeds,

they will squander the everlasting profit of an eternal reward,

and store up awful tortures in baleful bundles.

And the rich, in whose hall I will rule,

35  become a troubled pauper, always needy for things,

never satisfied by the rich feasts of the world,

and they will lack any long peace of mind, which they do not deserve,

and despise all their most virtuous friends.

I strike down faith in justice and serene peace,

40  and Christ’s humility is widely wasted by me.

The patience of the saints has never stayed with me,

mercy has never looked under my roof,

and holy charity always flees from me in fear.

The songs of ancient poets call out to these children

45  of the king of heaven, who rules in the highest castle;

I always hated and rejected them. 

He who hides me, wild and furious, beneath their roof,

I encourage to commit murder, the greatest mother of wrath,

so that one brother tears open the stomach of the other.

50  The high creator, who once created the world,

did not make me under the same law of creation,

but rather, some time ago, the ancient serpent in paradise produced

me from its belly with evil deception, detested by those on earth. 

I entice more idiots to love me, the wild one,

55  so that they seek a sweeter mead than the drink of nectar.

Anyone who briefly possesses this one, with twisted deeds,

is invited to live more richly in the worldly kingdom.

In error, he does not have that which he sees in his blinded mind,

nor does he belong to himself, but rather he is regarded as a slave to me.

60  I am called “sweetest virgin” by the champions of Orcus,

and, on the other hand, the angels call me “the evilest monster,”

because I have hurt many nations, pushing them down into Tartarus.

I have heard that a certain great ancient,

famous for his deeds, with the renowned name of Paul,

65  said that I was the root and cause of all evils. 

If the judge of the world betrayed him to me,

his terrified limbs would tremble beneath biting teeth.

Click to show riddle solution?

Avarice

Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 3 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 13 in Orchard’s edition.

Line 57, vitatur > invitatur, following Andy Orchard (ed. & trans.). The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2021. Page 208.

Commentary for Bern Riddle 11: De nave

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 15 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 11: De nave

Regular readers of The Riddle Ages will have noticed that I like to communicate ideas using tangentially related music videos. This occasion is no exception—our riddle plays upon what it means to be dead or alive, so take it away, Bon Jovi.



Riddles often use binaries to generate surprising ideas; one of the most common is the binary of living/dead. In Line 1, the dead wood (in the form of a ship) carries a maiorem laborem (“greater burden”) than the living tree did. Interestingly, although death in the early Middle Ages was often depicted as a relief from a lifetime of hardship, here the idea is reversed. The “greater burden” is, of course, all the contents of the ship that it carries. Line 2 continues this theme: the wood does far more work when lying down than standing up. Again, this is the exact opposite of us humans.
Line 3-4 describe the unloading of a ship as if it were an animal being disembowelled. The word viscera (“innards”) occurs on three other occasions in the Bern collection (Riddles 23, 24, and 32)., and each time it is used in a new and creative way. It also appears in Exeter Riddle 90 (the only Latin riddle of the Exeter Book). The various uses of viscera are testament to the importance in riddles of disclosing the hidden interior of things.

“A warship from Peter of Eboli’s Liber ad honorem Augusti in the late 12th century Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 120.II, f. 110r. Image from E-codices (licence: CC BY 3.0.)



The creature tells us that it is intact and inedible once dead, before returning to the theme of travel and feet from the previous riddle. When alive, the creature moves as if it was never there, leaving no marks behind it. This “no traces” trope is very common in the medieval riddle tradition, from Symphosius to the Exeter Book. For example, Symphosius’ Riddle 13, which is also about a ship, tells us that curro vias multas, vestigia nulla relinquens (“I run many roads, leaving no tracks behind”). Alcuin of York even uses it as a trick question in his mathematical puzzles, Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes. He asks, Bos qui tota die arat, quot uestigia faciat in ultima riga (“If an ox ploughs for the whole day, how many footprints does he make in the final furrow?”). The solution is “none,” since the plough that the ox pulls will cover all his footsteps with earth.
This riddle manages to pack so much into six lines: live and death turned upside down, things turned inside out, and a traveller that leaves no traces. If you want to compare it to another very interesting ship riddle, you can read Megan’s commentary for Exeter Riddle 32 here.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Eric Reith, "Mediterranean Ship Design in the Middle Ages." In The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology. Edited by Alexis Catsambis, Ben Ford, and Donny L. Hamilton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pages 406-425.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Related Posts:
Commentary for Exeter Riddle 32
Exeter Riddle 90
Bern Riddle 11: De nave
Bern Riddle 23: De igne
Bern Riddle 24: De membrana
Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 11

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 30 Jun 2021

Matching Riddle: Lorsch Riddle 11

Today’s ox riddle is udderly brilliant and very amoosing too!
It is difficult to overstate the economic importance of cattle—and particularly oxen—in pre-Conquest England. Plough-oxen were perhaps the most important livestock of all, since horses were seldom used for ploughing during this period. In the Domesday Book", the standard plough team consists of eight oxen, but illustrations in manuscripts never depict this many animals drawing a single plough—it may be that smaller teams of two or four were typically used (Banham & Faith, page 51). Cattle were typically smaller than today, and they were probably horned (Banham & Faith, pages 89 & 91).

“A wheeled plough with two oxen, from the early 11th century Old English poetic manuscript, Bodleian Library MS. Junius 11 (“The Cædmon Manuscript”), page 54. Photograph from CC BY-NC 4.0)



When you live and work alongside cattle each day, and when you care for them and depend on them for your survival, it is natural that they also find an important place in your language and cultural imagination. For example, they were so important as a form of exchange that the Old English word feoh means both “cattle” and “money” or “wealth”—we get the Modern English word fee from it. Cows and oxen appear in many English place names, from the sedate Cowgrove (Old English, “cow-grove”) in Dorset and Neatham (Old English, “cattle village”) in Hampshire to the brilliantly named village of Crackpot (Old Norse and Old English “cow-hole”) in North Yorkshire.
Cattle also appear in written texts. They can be found in various law codes, which regulate cattle transactions and harshly punish cattle-thieves. They appear in wills, such as that of Ælfric of Abingdon, who left ten oxen to Abingdon Abbey (Whitelock, page 53), and the noblewoman Wynflæd, who gave six oxen, four cows, and four calves to Shaftesbury Abbey (Whitelock, page 14). They also appear in several medicinal texts, which prescribe concoctions and rites for bovine diseases (see Cockayne, pages 386-7 and 388-9), as well as this brilliant magical charm designed to be chanted when your cows go missing: 
Garmund,     godes ðegen,

find þæt feoh     and fere þæt feoh

and hafa þæt feoh     and heald þæt feoh

and fere ham þæt feoh.


[Garmund, God’s thane, find the cattle, and transport the cattle, and keep the cattle, and guard the cattle, and bring the cattle home.]


—"For Loss of Cattle,” lines 1-4, ASPR 6, page 126.


I can’t vouch for the effectiveness of this charm, but if any livestock farmers want to try it, please let me know how you get on!
It should be no surprise that medieval riddlers were also big fans of our bovine friends. As we will see, cattle riddles and puzzles can be found in a range of sources, including the Exeter Book Riddles, the riddles of Eusebius and Aldhelm, the Collectanea Pseudo-Bedae, and the Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes (“Propositions to Sharpen the Young”) of Alcuin of York. Oh, and the Lorsch Riddles, of course!

”Cattle ploughing in Xigazê prefecture in Tibet. Photo (by Gerd Eichmann) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


                                                                                                                                    
Our riddle begins with a rather charming metaphor: it describes the teats of the young ox’s mother as four fountains (bis binis fontibus). Very similar descriptions can be found in several other medieval riddles. The closest is a riddle (No. 83) by the seventh century churchman and poet, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, which contains the line: 
Bis binis bibulus potum de fontibus hausi.


[Thirsty, I drank from four fountains.]


Another analogue can be found in a prose riddle in the Collectanea Pseudo-Bedae, an early medieval collection of 388 short texts of various kinds, which probably dates from the eighth century. This riddle tells us:
Vidi filium inter quatuor fontes nutritum


[I saw a son fed among four fountains.]


Something similar is mentioned in Exeter Riddle 38, which describes the cow’s udders as feower wellan (“four springs”) that shoot forth. And yet another analogue is found in Exeter Riddle 72, which refers to them as four brothers who dispense drinks. It is possible that these riddles all borrowed from an earlier source that is now lost. However, it seems more probable that Aldhelm’s riddle provided the inspiration for the others.
Lines 2 and 3 talk about cutting “mountains and valleys” (montes vallesque)—these are the ridges and furrows that the ox cuts into the field with the plough. But why is this “overturning the laws of nature” (evertens naturae iura rescidi)? I think the point is tongue in cheek. After all, an ox cannot create literal mountains or valleys without something going seriously wrong in the world of physics!

”Ploughing with oxen on the banks of the Ayeyarwady river, Mandalay, Burma. Photo (by Luis Bartolomé Marcos) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


                                                                                                                                    
Lines 2 and 3 are also very similar to those found in other riddles. For example, Exeter Riddle 38, tells how the ox duna briceð (“breaks the hills”). Two Latin riddles—a riddle (No. 37) by the pseudonymous 8th century English riddler, Eusebius, and the Collectanea riddle—also describe how the ox disrupit montes (“broke the mountains”). Again, they are all clearly part of the same tradition. However, it is much harder to work out who is borrowing from whom here, since the most obvious source—Aldhelm’s Riddle 83—describes ploughing in very literal terms in his riddle.
Sadly, no ox can live forever; lines 4 to 7 are all about the usefulness of the ox’s hide after it has died. The binding of arms and the “defences” (munumina) for human feet refer to the use of leather in clothing and footwear. You may have noticed that the mention of “fates” (fatae) is very similar to that of Lorsch Riddles 1 and 2–the human speaker of Riddle 1 tells us sunt mihi diverso varia sub tempore fata (“My fate changes at different times”), and the heart or soul of Riddle 2 ends with sic sunt fata mea diversa a patre creata (“in such ways, my father fashioned my various fates”). By describing the ox’s fate in a similar way in lines 4 and 8, our riddle might be hinting that we should feel a similar degree of sympathy for our bovine cousins. It would also suggest that all three riddles (and probably Lorsch Riddle 12 too) were written by the same author.
And so, that’s Lorsch Riddle 11, part of a long tradition of legendairy bovine riddles, and which also takes an interest in the various fates of creatures. This imaginative intertextuality is one of the great things about riddles—you might have herd some of the clues before, but they always manage to rearrange them in cunning new ways.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

“For Theft of Cattle.” In Dobbie, Elliott Van Kirk (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition, Volume 6 (ASPR 6). New York: Columbia University Press, 1942.

Banham, Debby and Faith, Rosamond. Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Cockayne, Oswald (ed.). Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England. Volume 1. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864.

Fulk, Robert D. A History of Old English Meter. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Fr. Glorie (ed.). Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968.

Whitelock, Dorothy (ed. & trans.). Anglo-Saxon Wills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930.

Tags: latin

Related Posts:
Lorsch Riddle 1
Lorsch Riddle 2
Lorsch Riddle 12

Bern Riddle 12: De grano

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 12: De grano

Original text:

Mortem ego pater libens adsumo pro natis

Et tormenta simul, cara ne pignora tristent.

Mortuum me cuncti gaudent habere parentes

Et sepultum nullus parvo vel funere plangit.

Vili subterrena pusillus tumulor urna,

Sed maiori possum post mortem surgere forma.

Translation:

A father, I willingly accept death for my young,

and tortures too, lest my beloved children are grieved.

All parents are glad to have me dead

and no one mourns me as I am buried or at my humble funeral.

Miniscule, I am buried underground in a cheap urn,

but I can rise after death in a greater form.

Click to show riddle solution?

A grain

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 741.

Line 3 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 558.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Lorsch Riddle 12

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sun 25 Apr 2021

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 12

Original text:

Silva fui dudum crescens in sentibus aspris,

Lymfa [si]cut fueram decurrens clara per amnem. 

Tertia pars mihimet tradenda est arte reperta. 

Lucifica nigris tunc nuntio regna figuris, 

Late per innumeros albos si spargas agellos, 

Necnon horrifera soleo tunc tartara ..... 

Grammate terribili narrare vitand[a] [re]latu.

Translation:

I was once a forest, growing in rough brambles, 

just as I had been clear water running down a stream. 

I will reveal a third part by ingenious skill. 

Then I tell of shining kingdoms with black shapes

if you scatter countless things widely across the white fields, 

and yet I also often tell stories of terrible Tartarus

that must be avoided, with a terrifying stroke of the pen.

Click to show riddle solution?

Ink, book, bast, wine.

Notes:

This edition is based on Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatinus latinus 1753, folio 117v. You can find images of this manuscript here.

Tags: latin

Boniface Riddle 12: Superbia loquitur

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 26 Jul 2021

Original text:

Serpens angelicus genuit me in culmine caeli,

Viperea spirans et crimina noxia cordi;

Pellexi et populi insidiando milia multa,

E superis regnis trudens in Tartara nigra.

5  Regina et mater peccati et praevia dicor,

Bella movens animis, caste qui vivere malunt;

Irasque insidiasque et mille crimina trado,

Altera in terris non est crudelior ulla.

Luciferum ut dudum seduxi fraude maligna,

10  Omnes sic passim mortales perdere tempto.

Qui me sub sinu gestant, se sternere tempnunt.

Viribus infestis alias convinco sorores.

In terris gradior, sed nubila vertice tango,

Terrificas grassans germanas subsequor una,

15  Viribus invisis sanctos in calce perimo,

Rectos ex armis propriis prosternere nitor.

Translation:

An angelic serpent birthed me in the heights of heaven,

breathing out snaky crimes, villainous to the heart;

I allured many thousands of nations with my scheming,

shoving them from the heavenly realms into black Tartarus. 

5  I am called the queen, mother, and vanguard of sin,

stirring up battles in souls who just want to live purely;

I bring anger and plot and a thousand crimes,

and no one else on earth is crueller. 

Just as once I seduced Lucifer with evil deception,

10  so I seek to destroy all mortals everywhere.

Those who carry me in their heart hate to humble themselves. 

I surpass the other sisters in harmful powers.

I walk on the earth, but I touch the top of the clouds.

Prowling about, I follow my sisters.

15  I strike saints in the heel with my evil powers,

and I work to overthrow the just with their own weapons.

Click to show riddle solution?

Pride

Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 4 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 14 in Orchard’s edition.

Line 15 perunco > perimo, following Fr. Glorie (ed.), Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 327.

Commentary for Bern Riddle 12: De grano

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 20 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 12: De grano

One of the hallmarks of the early medieval riddle tradition is describing ordinary things in fantastic ways. A description of the humblest object can become an extraordinary drama, full of twists and turns. Our subject today, Riddle 12, is a tiny epic masterpiece. It takes the story of a cereal grain being prepared for sowing and transforms it into a tragic story of parental self-sacrifice. It is the second of a trilogy of riddles on cereal crops, along with Riddles 9 and 17.

“Two men threshing, from the Calendar-Martyrology of the Abbey of de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 12834, fol. 64v.), c. 1270. Photograph (by the Bibliothèque nationale de France) from Wikipedia Commons (public domain)



The story is a violent one, just like Bern Riddle 9, which describes milling as a massacre. Are we meant to feel sorry for the grain? After all, we are told that no one mourns it. I think we are, at least momentarily, before we realise the absurdity of it all. The death is the reaping, and the torture is the threshing and winnowing. Since this grain will eventually be sown rather than used for food, the story does not include milling for flour. The grain undergoes all these hardships so it eventually will produce a new cereal crop. However, this noble act is ignored by “all parents” (cuncti parentes), who are glad at the grain’s death. Presumably these parents are the humans, and their rejoicing is the festivals that developed around harvesting and threshing.
The grain’s burial is, as you might have already guessed, its sowing, but the reference to the vilis urna (“cheap or vile urn”) is a bit trickier to explain. In one sense, it seems to be referring to the older, pagan practice of storing the ashes of the dead in cremation urns—the ancient Romans built underground tombs, or columbaria, to store theirs. But how does this refer to agriculture? Perhaps the urn is the furrow into which the grain is sown, although you would expect this to be described as a grave.

“Two men threshing, from the Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add. 42130, f.74v), c. 1325-1335. Photograph (by the British Library) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC0 1.0)



After all this hardship and sadness, the plot twists dramatically in the final line. Turning the tables on its oppressors, the grain rises from the dead in the maiori forma (“greater form”) of a new cereal plant. This line also has echoes of the Resurrection of Christ—the grain, who has willingly accepted death for the sake of his children and then been entombed, now rises from death. But it would be wrong to claim that the whole riddle is an allegory for Christ, since it is hard to explain why Jesus would be pusillus (“minuscule”) or buried in an urn. Unlike many other medieval riddles, the Bern Riddles are never particularly religious, and they can be quite profane at times. In this respect, they really go against the grain.*
*Shame on me for reusing the pun from my commentary for Riddle 9.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 9: De mola
Bern Riddle 13: De vite
Bern Riddle 17: De cribro

Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 12

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 30 Jun 2021

Matching Riddle: Lorsch Riddle 12

You can devise the most fiendishly beautiful riddle. You can have the most elaborate pen and the finest vellum. But that’s still not enough. If you want to write a medieval riddle collection, then you’re going to need a good supply of… INK!
Ink in early medieval England was produced in two different ways. The first, easier way was to grind charcoal into soot and then dissolve it in water, before adding a binding agent, such as gum arabic, to stabilise it. The second, slightly more complicated process used oak galls—the round, apple-like swellings that grow from the leaf buds of many kinds of oak trees as a reaction to insect eggs. First, the galls are collected and crushed to a pulp. Then water is added, and after some hours this solution is filtered to produce a thick acidic liquid. This is then mixed with iron sulphate, which immediately reacts with the acid to form black-grey iron gallate. Finally, a binder—again, usually gum arabic—is added.

”Different kinds of oak gall. From Adler. Hermann and Straton, Charles R. Alternating Generations; a Biological Study of Oak Galls and Gall Flies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1894. Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons (public domain)”


                                                                                                                                    
Our riddle is not solved simply by guessing that it is ink. Rather, we must guess the ingredients too. The opening line tells us that the riddle subject was once “a forest” (silva). The obvious conclusion would be that this ingredient is wood, which is then burnt into charcoal. However, it is also quite possible that the correct solution is oak galls. The second line tells us that it had also been “clear water running down a stream” (lymfa decurrens clara per amnem)—this is, of course, the water that is added to the soot or pulverised galls. Line 3 then explains that the “third part” (tertia pars) is revealed “by ingenious skill (arte reperta). This is either the mixing and filtering of the mixture, or perhaps the act of writing itself. 



The riddle changes tack from lines 4 onwards, now concentrating on the literary material that the ink encodes on the page. We saw in the commentary for Lorsch Riddle 9 that riddles often describe book pages as fields and pens as ploughs. This trope crops up in line 5, which imagines the act of writing as if it were sowing seeds of wisdom per albos agellos (“across the white fields”). The ink tells us about “shining kingdoms” (lucifica regna), that is, the news of the kingdom of heaven that biblical texts transmit. The written word also tells the reader about Hell, which is here referred to as Tatarus, just as we saw in Lorsch Riddles 1 and 2. 
And that takes us to the end of Lorsch Riddle 12, and to the end of the whole Lorsch collection too! Does Riddle 12 describe iron gall ink or carbon ink? Personally, I think that iron gall is the more likely, but maybe this is just a pigment of my imagination.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Garside, Paul & Miller, Zoë. “Iron Gall Ink on Paper: Saving the Words that Eat Themselves.” British Library, Collection Care Blog. 03 June 2021. Available here.

Tags: latin

Related Posts:
Exeter Riddle 21
Lorsch Riddle 1
Lorsch Riddle 2
Lorsch Riddle 9

Bern Riddle 13: De vite

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 13: De vite

Original text:

Uno fixa loco longinquis porrego victum.

Caput mihi ferrum secat et brachia truncat.

Lacrimis infecta plura per vincula nector,

Simili damnandos nece dum genero natos.

Sed defuncti solent ulcisci liberi matrem,

Sanguine dum fuso lapsis vestigia versant.

Translation:

Fixed in one place, I offer food to foreigners.

A sword cuts off my head and chops off my limbs.

Tear-stained, I am bound with many bindings,

whilst I give birth to children condemned to a similar death.

But the dead children usually avenge the mother,

and, when blood has been spilt, they subvert the footsteps of the fallen.

Click to show riddle solution?

Vine

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 742.

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 559.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Boniface Riddle 13: Crapula gulae

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 26 Jul 2021

Original text:

Clara fui quondam, Sodomae dum farra manebant,

Regmina foeda tenens, donec pius ultor ab alto

Ardentes flammas multans et sulphura misit.

Praevia sum luxus petulantis foetore carnis,

5  Viribus aequalis bibulae perfecta soroti.

Lurida nam dudum frangebam moenia sancta,

Aurea dum Solymae famosae templa ruebant;

Grandia nam populus mordax quondam idola fecit.

Vivere iam docui mediocres mente superba,

10  Lectos et proceres iustos quoque spernere victus.

Arte mea plures submersi faucibus orci;

Externi ut superis miscentur civibus ignis.

Translation:

I was once renowned, when the grit of Sodom was alive,

retaining their loathsome kingdom, until a holy avenger from heaven

punished me, sending out burning flames and sulphur.

I am the bringer of debauchery in the stench of wanton flesh,  

5  and I am made equal in strength to my thirsty sister.

For, ghastly, I once smashed down the sacred walls

when the golden temples of famous Solyma fell;

for, at one time, the snarling nation made great idols.

After that, I taught the mediocre to live with a proud mind,

10  and I also taught the best and noblest to spurn righteous living.

I have cunningly sunk many into the jaws of Orcus;

as exiles from heaven, they are joined with the citizens of Hell.

Click to show riddle solution?

Overindulgence (of the gullet)

Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 5 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 15 in Orchard’s edition.

Line 4, foenore > foetore, following Fr. Glorie (ed.), Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 329.

Commentary for Bern Riddle 13: De vite

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 21 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 13: De vite

Just like the  previous riddle on the cereal grain, Riddle 13 is a tiny epic. And it continues the theme of depicting the harvesting of crops as an act of extreme violence and revenge, but this time the topic is viticulture and winemaking.
In ancient Rome, wine was ubiquitous, it was drunk by all social classes and it had a unique place in Roman culture. Expensive wines were served at aristocratic banquets, soldiers received a daily ration of posca (a mixture of souring wine and water), and wealthy politicians would often distribute mulsum (“sweetened wine”) to curry favour with the plebeians. Wine was also a popular offering to many deities, and it was considered to have important medicinal properties. There is little evidence that the turmoil of the 5th and 6th centuries involved the destruction of viticulture, although the general decline in long-distance trade and the decline of urban populations in this period certainly gave wine production a more restricted and local character (Unwin, pages 122-4). In fact, when Paul the Deacon described the Goths’ conquest of Italy in his History of the Lombards, he claimed that they came because they liked the wine so much (Paul the Deacon, page 78).

“Aleatico grapes on the vine. Photograph (by Doris Schneider) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)



The importance of wine in the Christian celebration of the Eucharist reinvigorated Italian viticulture, and early medieval subsistence viticulture began to be bolstered by new, monastically run vineyards. In southern Europe, wine remained the drink of all ranks of society. In the north, on the other hand, wine was largely the drink of the aristocratic and religious elites. Nevertheless, the techniques of winemaking were known in pre-Conquest England, and several vineyards operated in southern England during the 10th and 11th centuries (Unwin, pages 135-6). This is important for our understanding of the Bern Riddles, since it means that we cannot take the riddle as definite evidence that Bern was written in southern Europe.
The riddle begins by alluding to the vine’s hospitality in producing grapes, by imagining it as a custom of offering food and drink to outsiders. Yet this kindness is not returned, since the weeping vine (“the mother”) is pruned to remove the bunches of grapes (“the children”). Even worse, the new-born children are simili damnandos nece (“condemned to a similar death”). Thus, the uncontroversial act of grape harvest is transformed into a horrific tale of mutilation and infanticide.
However, as with the previous riddle, there is a twist in the last two lines. In this case, the parent’s death is avenged by the dead children. Whereas in Riddle 12 the story of the resurrected grain hinted at the Resurrection of Christ, Riddle 13’s vengeful zombie children seems to have echoes of the revenants and ghosts that were so popular in medieval folklore. When they take their revenge in the final line, blood is spilt, but it is theirs—the blood refers either to the process of squeezing and pressing the wine or to the messy drinking of the wine, and the revenge is the inebriating effect of the alcohol on humans. Thus, the children versant (“whirl about” or perhaps “pervert”) the walk of those who are literally stumbling and falling about. If there is a moral to this riddle-story, it is “watch out when you drink wine, or you might suffer the wrath of grapes.”

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Caciola, Nancy Mandeville. “Revenants, Resurrection, and Burnt Sacrifice.” Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural. Volume 3 (2014). Pages 311–338.

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

Paul the Deacon. History of the Lombards. Edited by Edward Peters, translated by William Dudley Foulke. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974.

Unwin, Tim. Wine and the Vine: An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade. London: Routledge, 1991. Pages 47-177.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 12: De grano

Bern Riddle 14: De oliva

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 14: De oliva

Original text:

Nullam ante tempus inlustrem genero prolem

Annisque peractis superbos genero natos.

Quos domare quisquis valet industria parvos,

Cum eos marinus iunctos percusserit imber.

Asperi nam lenes sic creant filii nepotes,

Tenebris ut lucem reddant, dolori salutem.

Translation:

I never give birth to noble children before my due date,

and after the years have ended, I give birth to excellent children.

Anyone can tame those little ones if they try,

whenever the sea-storm beats those siblings.

For hard sons create soft grandchildren

So that they give light to darkness and safety to trouble.

Click to show riddle solution?

Olive tree

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 742.

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 560.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Boniface Riddle 14: Ebrietas dicebat

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021

Original text:

Ex bibulis semper dinoscor condita buccis;

Blandius inliciens stultis sum cara virago.

Rixas irarum iugiter conturbo feroces,

Ignavos oculos et linguam famine trico,

5  Et pedibus tardos somnos et somnia dira

Toto infirmato mollescens corpore trado.

Aurea faustorum fugiet sapientia longe,

Stultorum passim persultant gaudia mecum:

Dulcem semper amat me sic luxoria matrem.

10  In gremio illius iugiter nutrimina porto,

Crudeles animas urens cum torribus atris,

Edita stelligeri ut non scandant culmina caeli,

Baratri repetant lustrantes ima profundi.

Auferat humanis deus istam mentibus ydram,

15  Tale homines ut non vastet per saecula monstrum!

Translation:

Tasty, I am always distinguished by thirsty mouths;

I am a woman loved by the foolish, whom I seduce with flattery.

I constantly provoke furious conflicts of rage,

I trick the lazy eyes and talkative tongue,

5  I give a tardy sleep to the feet and terrible dreams

to the whole weakened, softening body.

The golden wisdom of the fortunate will run far off,

and the joys of the stupid dance about with me:

wantonness always loves me as her sweet mother.

10  I bring nourishment to her lap incessantly,

burning cruel souls with evil flames,

so that they cannot ascend to the lofty heights of starry heaven,

and, wandering, they return to the pits of deep hell.

Let God take away that serpent from human minds

15  so that such a monster does not destroy humans across the world!

Click to show riddle solution?

Drunkenness

Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 6 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 16 in Orchard’s edition.

Line 5, semina > somnia, following Andy Orchard (ed. & trans.). The Old English and Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2021. Page 212.

Commentary for Bern Riddle 14: De oliva

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 21 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 14: De oliva

We have already had riddles about cereal grains and grape vines, and now it is the turn of the top of the crops—the olive tree! Olives were a key crop for many medieval Mediterranean communities, and consequently some scholars have taken this as evidence that the Bern Riddles were composed in southern Europe (see Klein, page 404). I agree that an Italian origin for the riddles is the most likely explanation, but the olive riddle is not definitive evidence—northern European Christians would be very familiar with the numerous biblical references to olives and olive trees. They would also have been familiar with olive oil, which was particularly valued as a fuel for lamps, as well as its liturgical use as holy oil. As a result, olive oil became closely connected with Christian identity and prestige, and churchmen around early medieval Europe went to great lengths to obtain it (Graham, pages 344-66). In England, it does not seem to have been used for cooking, but there is good evidence for its importation throughout the pre-Conquest medieval period (Gautier, pages 393-4).

“Olives. Photograph (by Kos) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)




The first four lines play with the fact that the olives are harvested in the autumn and winter, when they begin to ripen. The parental trope so common to these riddles is used to describe how the children (i.e. the olives) are not born until the end of the year, when the “sea storm” rages, rather than in the summer and autumn like many crops. The idea that the tree’s children are “noble” (inlustris) and “excellent” (superbus) probably alludes to the anointing of kings and priests with olive oil in the Old Testament, and perhaps also its sacramental role as the chrism.  Since olive trees do not need too much attention, at least when compared to grapes and grain, anyone can “tame” or “conquer” (domare) their children by cultivating and picking them.
Line 5 may relate to the process of ripening, but I think it is more likely that it refers to the process of milling, pressing, and decanting the olives (“hard sons”) to produce olive oil (“soft grandchildren”). This leads nicely into line 6, which describes the oil’s use. It can “restore light” because the oil can be used as fuel for lamps—recalling Riddle 2’s oil lamp. And it can restore salutem (“safety” or “health”)—a phrase that may allude either to oil’s use as a preservative for food and leather or its liturgical use.
This riddle is interesting in that, whilst we are very familiar with olives today, we probably attach a different sense of importance to them. In the twenty-first century, we think of olives as primarily a food and a source of cooking oil. They were used in this way in the medieval period too, but this is not mentioned—its role in artificial light was much more important. And this is another reason why olive this riddle so much!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Gautier, Alban. “Cooking and Cuisine in Late Anglo-Saxon England.” Anglo-Saxon England, Volume 41 (2012). Pages 373-406.

Graham, Benjamin. “Olives and Lighting in Dark Age Europe.” Early Medieval Europe, Volume 28 (2020). Pages 344-366.

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

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 2: De lucerna
Bern Riddle 12: De grano
Bern Riddle 13: De vite

Bern Riddle 15: De palma

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 15: De palma

Original text:

Pulchra semper comis locis consisto desertis,

Ceteris dum mihi cum lignis nulla figura.

Dulcia petenti de corde poma produco

Nullumque de ramis cultori confero fructum.

Nemo, qui me serit, meis de fructibus edit,

Et amata cunctis flore sum socia iustis.

Translation:

I always have beautiful hair and I exist in desert places,

although I do not look like the other trees.

I produce sweet fruits from my heart to those who seek them

and I bear no crop for the farmer from my branches.

No one who sows me feasts upon my fruits,

and when in flower, I am a beloved girlfriend to the just.

Click to show riddle solution?

Date palm

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 742

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 561.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Boniface Riddle 15: Luxuria ait

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021

Original text:

Limpida sum, fateor, saeva sed fraude maligna,

Usibus humanis dulcis ceu nectaris haustus.

Xristicolas passim perdens per tetra venena,

Omnia pertemptabo ardendo viscera febre.

5  Ruricolam rarum quemquam sine vulnere linquo;

Ignibus internis animas ad Tartara duco,

Aurea luciferi ut non tranent culmina caeli.

Ars mea escarum et vini nutrimine crescit.

Infelix mortale genus, quod bestia talis

10  Tetrica mulcendo tradit per Tartara mortis!

Heu miseri, talem, mortales, spernite gypsam,

Quae mares matresque simul disperdere temptat.

Parcite sumptuosos victus et sumere potus,

Quo solet antiquus serpens nutrimine pasci!

15  Qui Sodomae princeps quondam dum regna vigebant,

Igniferum rapuit dum cives sulphur ab ethra.

Translation:

I am bright, I confess, but also evil in violent deception,

just as a drink of nectar is sweet in human experience.

I destroy Christians everywhere with foul poisons

and I will test all stomachs with a burning torment.

5  I rarely leave any earth-dweller unharmed;

when flames burn within, I lead souls to Tartarus,

so that they do not fly to the golden heights of illuminated heaven.

My art grows with the nourishment of food and wine.

Unlucky mortal race, whom such a beast

10  flatters and then gives over to gloomy, Tartarian death!

Oh wretched mortals, reject such a serpent,

who strives to destroy both men and women. 

Refrain from taking sumptuous food and drink,

upon which nourishment the ancient serpent usually feeds.

15  He was prince of Sodom once, when the kingdom prospered,

until fiery sulphur from heaven killed the citizens.

Click to show riddle solution?

Luxury

Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 7 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 17 in Orchard’s edition.

Commentary for Bern Riddle 15: De palma

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 21 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 15: De palma

Medievalists love dates. The date of Charlemagne’s coronation as emperor, the dating of Beowulf’s composition, the computation of a date of Easter—we just cannot get enough of them. Well, this riddle is all about the place where dates come from: the date palm!
I have already discussed whether the olive tree and grape vine riddles (Nos. 13 and 14) are evidence of a southern European origin for the Bern Riddles. As with these others, I agree that the presence of a Mediterranean plant would suggest this (see Klein, page 404), but I do not think it is definitive, since the date palm is a common biblical plant.

“Date palm. Photograph (by Balaram Mahalder) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)



As with the last three riddles, Riddle 15 describes the generosity of plants. Happily, unlike those, the palm tree is not afflicted with beatings, torture, or mutilation. Instead, we get the image of a beautifully haired woman who happily offers dates to those who ask. The mention of cetera ligna (“other trees”) and poma (“fruits”) in line 2 gives the solution away, but it does make me wonder whether the point of these riddles is not so much to name a solution as to unpick the description and admire the riddle’s ingenuity.
The final two lines allude to sexual relations, which it characteristically turns upside down. Line 5 explains that the date is not sown as one would sow many other crops. The verb serere (“to sow”) can also mean to impregnate or beget, and the noun fructus (“fruit”) can have the transferred sense of both produce and pleasure. Thus, the implied meaning seems to be that the date palm cannot become pregnant or gain pleasure from conventional forms of cis heterosexual sexual intercourse. Line 6 develops this conceit further, explaining that the tree is an amata socia (literally “beloved female companion”) when she is in flore (“in flower”), a term that can also be used to describe maidenly virginity. At the same time, this line alludes to a line in Psalms 92:12: “The righteous will flourish like the palm tree.” Like some of its Old English siblings, this riddle is a clever combination of the sacred and the profane.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Klein, Thomas. “Pater Occultus: The Latin Bern Riddles and Their Place in Early Medieval Riddling.” Neophilologus, Volume 103 (2019), 399-407. Page 404.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Bern Riddle 16: De cedride

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 16: De cedride

Original text:

Me pater ut vivam spinis enutrit iniquis;

Faciat ut dulcem, inter acumina servat.

Tereti nam forma ceram confingo rubentem

Et incisa nullam dono de corpore guttam.

Mellea cum mihi sit sine sanguine caro,

Acetum eructant exta conclusa saporem.

Translation:

Father brings me up to live in painful thorns;

to make me sweet, he keeps me between needles.

I fashion together red wax into a round form,

and I give not a drop when my body is cut.

Although my flesh has no sweet blood,

my enclosed insides give a bitter taste.

Click to show riddle solution?

Juniper/cedar berry

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 743.

Line 1 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 562.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Boniface Riddle 16: Invidia ait

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021

Original text:

Impia gignendo sum filia daemonis atri;

Non sum satoris superi moderamine creata,

Viribus atque meis mors introivit in orbem,

In paradisi ortos quondam dum vipera repsit.

5  Dum fratum aspiciam sanctorum facta tabesco;

Infelix fatum tanta me fraude fefellit,

Ac bona sic propria frendendo perdo dolose.

Atque ego virtutum vastatrix impia dicor.

Ignea si pariter sum nec matryria prosunt,

10  Tartareum macerans et torquens corde venenum.

Translation:

I am the daughter of an evil demon, unholy from birth;

I was not created under the direction of the heavenly creator,

and death entered the world by my powers,

when the snake once crawled into paradise. 

5  As I look at the deeds of holy brothers, I waste away;

unlucky fate has tricked me with such deceit,

and so I cunningly grind up their good deeds,

and I am called the unholy destroyer of the virtues.

If I am also present, fiery martyrdoms are useless;

10  I torture and torment—a Tartarian poison to the heart.

Click to show riddle solution?

Envy

Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 8 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 18 in Orchard’s edition.

Commentary for Bern Riddle 16: De cedride

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 21 Jan 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 16: De cedride

As readers may already know, the Old English riddles of The Exeter Book do not have their solutions included. Because Latin riddles usually include these in their titles, people often think—wrongly, in my opinion—that they are somehow less enigmatic and mysterious. But what about those cases where the titles do not appear to be correct? Well, Bern Riddle 16 is a great example of this. In the past 1500 or so years, people have understood this riddle to be about, variously, the cedar tree, cedar oil, juniper berry, and the lemon. See what you think!

“Lemon tree. Photograph (by Allentchang) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)



The manuscript title is Cedrus (“cedar tree”) and De cedris (“about the cedar”). But when you read the riddle, it does not seem to be about a tree at all, but rather what it produces. Some scholars have assumed that the correct title is “about cedar oil” (cedriis), but this cannot be correct. Firstly, the description does not match this—for example, oil does not have a caro (“body,” “flesh”) that can be cut. Secondly, cedrium is a neuter noun, and the speaker of the riddle is unmistakably feminine singular. (I told you in the commentary to Riddle 1 that the gender of Latin nouns would come in useful!) Other scholars have corrected the title to De citria (“about the citron fruit”), which matches the riddle creature’s grammatical gender and explains the reference to spinae iniquae (“painful thorns”), acetus sapor (“sour or bitter taste”) and teres forma (“round form”) (Meyer, page 420; Salvador Bello, page 260). A third solution, which is preferred by Glorie (page 562) and Klein (page 403-4), is De cedride (“about the juniper/cedar berry”). If this is correct, then it would suggest that, at some point in the manuscript transmission, the ablative cedris (“cedar”) became confused with the nominative cedris (“juniper berry”). This is the solution that I have followed here.

“Juniper berries. Photograph (by MPF) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)



The riddle begins with a seemingly unpleasant childhood spent within thorns and needles, which refers to the needles of the juniper tree. It may also allude to the biblical Crown of Thorns—another example of how these riddles play with ideas of the sacred and profane. Most manuscripts give mater (“mother”) in line 1, but at least one manuscript gives pater (“father”). My guess is that pater is correct because the Latin for the juniper tree (cedrus) is also masculine—and the juniper tree is the parent of the berry. The cera rubens (“red wax”) in line 3 is the berry itself, which does not ooze its “blood” when cut; it must be crushed with a pestle to extract its juice. Juniper berry juice has been used throughout history as a flavouring and as an ingredient in various kinds of medicine. It is also extremely sour, as lines 5 and 6 explain. Personally, I prefer mine in the form of a gin & tonic, ideally whilst lying in the sun and reading riddles on a hot summer’s day!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Fr. Glorie (ed.). Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 562.

Klein, Thomas. “Pater Occultus: The Latin Bern Riddles and Their Place in Early Medieval Riddling.” Neophilologus, Volume 103 (2019), 399-407. Page 404-5.

Meyer, Willhelm. “Anfang und Ursprung der lateinischen und griechishen rhthmischen Dichtung.” In Abhandlungen der Philosophisch-Philologischen Classe der Koniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Volume 17 (1886), 265-450. Page 420.

Salvador-Bello, Mercedes. Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata. Morgantown, West Virginia University Press, 2015. Page 260.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Bern Riddle 17: De cribro

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 17: De cribro

Original text:

Patulo sum semper ore nec labia iungo.

Incitor ad cursum frequenti verbere tactus.

Exta mihi nulla; manu si forte ponantur,

Quassa mitto currens, minuto vulnere ruptus,

Meliora cunctis, mihi nam vilia servans;

Vacuumque bonis inanem cuncti relinquunt.

Translation:

My mouth is always open and my lips are never sealed.

I am urged on my course by a well-used whip.

I have no insides. If they are placed by hand,

I, moving and broken by tiny wounds, will send them out, shaken,

keeping the worst for me and the best for all;

everyone abandons the hollow and empty one for the good things.

Click to show riddle solution?

Sieve

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 743.

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 563.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles