RIDDLE POSTS BY CONTRIBUTOR: NEVILLEMOGFORD

Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce
Original text:
Arbor una, mihi vilem quae conferet escam.
Qua repleta parva, vellera magna produco.
Exiguos conlapsa foetos pro munere fundo,
Et ales effecta mortem adsumo libenter.
Nobili perfectam forma me caesares ulnis
Efferunt et reges infra supraque mirantur.
Translation:
There is one tree, which will give me wretched food.
Full up from very little, I produce great wool.
Dying, I birth small children as a gift,
and, having produced wings, I wilfully accept death.
Completed in my noble form, I am carried on the shoulders of emperors,
and kings marvel at me from above and below.
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 747.

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 574.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce

This riddle is one of two silk-themed Bern Riddles (the other is Riddle 43). This gives me the perfect opportunity to tell you about the time when two silkworms had a race.

It ended in a tie.

Silk was among the most valuable and lucrative commodities of the Middle Ages, and silk garments were signifiers of prestige and wealth in medieval Europe. Chinese silks travelled across the Silk Road, a vast trade route stretching from the Pacific coast of China, through the Himalayas and Pamirs, central Asia, India, and Persia, all the way to Ethiopia, Egypt, Mediterranean Europe and beyond. Arabia and Byzantine Constantinople were other early medieval centres of silk-production, and the industry eventually spread to North Africa, Spain, and Southern Italy from the eleventh century onwards.

Silk1
“Chinese emissaries bringing silk and silkworm cocoons to the court of Varkhuman in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. From the Afrasiyab murals 648-51 CE. Photograph (by The Northeast Asian History Foundation) from Wikimedia Commons(Public domain).”


It was also a popular subject for medieval riddles. It features in two of Aldhelm’s riddles (Nos. 12 on the silkworm and 33 on the breastplate) and two Old English adaptations of Aldhelm’s second riddle. Although our riddle is usually entitled De serico (“About silk”), really there are two speaking riddle subjects: the silkworm (lines 1-4) and the silk (lines 5-6). Thus, I have given it the additional title De bombyce (“About the silkworm”). However, lines 2, 3, 4 and 5 describe the silkworm using neuter adjectives, which can only fit with sericum (“silk”), since the alternatives bombyx (“silkworm”) and verme (“worm”) are grammatically feminine and masculine.

The riddle opens with mention of a “single tree” (arbor una), which is the mulberry tree, the only tree that the silkworm eats. The “wretched food” (vilem… escam) is its leaves. The second line then introduces the apparent paradox that a creature eating a humble food can create a great wealth—you may remember a similar description of the sheep in Riddle 22.

Silk2
“21-day old silkworms. Photograph (by Armin Kübelbeck) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY SA 3.0)”


Lines 3 and 4 shift their focus to the silk cocoon, which are described as exiguos foetos (“small children”), born after the worm has “produced wings,” that is, as it metamorphosises into a moth. Sadly, the silk cocoon is usually removed by boiling, which makes the silk easier to process but causes the death of the silkworm. Thus, the silkworm’s death is described as an example of parental self-sacrifice, in a similar way to Riddle 12’s cereal grain.

The final two lines shift their focus to the silk’s “noble form” (nobilis forma) once it has been spun and woven into clothing. In a sense, this riddle is all about upwards mobility, in the vein of Riddle 22’s sheep—the creature that once ate “wretched food” is now carried by emperors and marvelled by kings. But this tale of rags to riches has a dark side too—the process has cost the silkworm-parent its life. The riddler seems to be reminding us that human wealth does not come without a cost.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Aldhelm of Malmesbury, “Enigmata 12 and 33.” In Rudolph Ehwald (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, MGH Auctrorum antiquissimorum 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919. Pages 101 and 111-2. Available here.

Fleming, Robin. “Acquiring, Flaunting and Destroying Silk in Late Anglo‐Saxon England.” In Early Medieval Europe, Volume 15 (2007). Pages 127-58.

Jacoby, David. “Silk Economics and Cross-Cultural Artistic Interaction: Byzantium, the Muslim World, and the Christian West.” In Dumbarton Oaks Papers. Volume 58 (2004). Pages 197-240.

Klein, Thomas. “Pater Occultus: The Latin Bern Riddles and Their Place in Early Medieval Riddling.” Neophilologus 103 (2019), 339-417, page 415.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Exeter Riddle 35 and the Leiden Riddle
Bern Riddle 12: De grano
Bern Riddle 43: De vermicolis siricis formatis

Bern Riddle 29: De speculo

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 29: De speculo
Original text:
Uterum si mihi praelucens texerit umbra,
Proprios volenti devota porrego vultus.
Talis ego mater vivos non genero natos,
Sed petenti vanas diffundo visu figuras.
Exiguos licet mentita profero foetos,
Sed de vero suas videnti dirigo formas.
Translation:
If a shining shadow has covered my belly,
I will show their very images to those who wish it.
Such a wonderful mother, I do not bear living children,
but rather I give birth to empty forms in the desirer’s sight.
Although, having lied, I produce poor children,
nevertheless, I send their images to the viewer based on the truth.
Click to show riddle solution?
Mirror


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 747.

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 575.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 29: De speculo

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 29: De speculo

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the best riddle-creature of them all?


The riddle is centred around the idea of a mirror as simultaneously a liar and a truth-teller. Its images are a pale, dead reflection of reality—vanas figuras (“empty forms”) and exiguos foetos (“poor children”). The idea that a mirror image is a deficient copy of reality is reminiscent of a whole host of Neo-Platonic and Christian ideas about the world. I immediately think of St Paul’s famous remarks in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that Videmus nunc per speculum et in aenigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem (“We now see through a mirror darkly [literally “in a riddle”], but then [we will see] face-to-face”). Largely due to Paul’s words, several important Christian philosophers and theologians talked about mirrors in their work. For example, Augustine of Hippo, writing at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century, frequently makes use of Paul’s allegory, particularly in On the Trinity, to explain how humans can only see the image of God imperfectly and indirectly, as if through a mirror (Augustine, pages 27, 47, 54, 134, 144 et al.).

Mirror
“Late 4th century Etruscan bronze mirror with an ivory handle. The engraving is a depiction of the goddesses Athena and several Etruscan mythological figures. Photograph (by The Metropolitan Museum of Art) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC0 1.0BY)”


At the same time, the mirror is always faithful to reality—it produces proprios vultus ("the very images”) and formas… de vero (“images based on the truth”). Thus, the riddle manages to capture simultaneously the observed reality about mirrors and the philosophical-theological discourse that is associated with them. It contains several other apparent paradoxes too. The person who stands before the mirror is a praelucens…umbra (“shadow shining”) since they both produce a mirror image and cast a shadow. And the mirror is a mother who bears no living children, since the images that she produces are “unreal” or “dead.” The father is not mentioned. Perhaps he is intended to be the person who “desires” (petens) and “wishes” (volens) the mirror to “give birth to” their own image. Certainly, framing the relationship between viewer and mirror as one of male desire and female passivity is an interesting one, and very different to some conventional association of mirrors with vain, usually female, viewers.

I feel that there is a lot more to be said about this riddle, but it will have to wait until another day. So, I will end by saying something that I say a lot—the Bern Riddles often surprise us with their depth and complexity. This short riddle manages to reflect on some big topics—the nature of reality and self-desire.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Augustine, On The Trinity, Books 8-15. Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, translated by Stephen McKenna. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Fleteren, Frederick van. “Per Speculum et in Aenigmate: 1 Corinthians 13:12 in Augustine and Anselm.”Annali di studi religiosi, Vol. 4 (2003). Pages 559-565.

Frelick, Nancy M. (editor). The Mirror in Medieval and Early Modern Culture: Specular Reflections. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016. (Although this edited book focuses on the depictions of mirrors in late medieval and early modern texts, many of the articles also relate to much earlier works.)



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 30: De pisce
Original text:
Nullo firmo loco manens consistere possum
Et vagando vivens nolo conspicere quemquam.
Vita mihi mors est, mortem pro vita requiro
Et volventi domo semper amica delector.
Numquam ego lecto volo iacere tepenti,
Sed vitale mihi torum sub frigora condo.
Translation:
I cannot stay still in a firm place,
and living as a wanderer, I do not want to see anyone.
Life is death for me, and I need death for life,
and my friendly, rolling home always delights me.
I never want to lie in a warm bed,
but I build myself a life-bed within the cold.
Click to show riddle solution?
Fish


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 747.

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 576.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

Fish are not only a favourite food of grizzly bears and ravenous crocodiles, but a favourite “food” of cunning riddlers too.

Long-time followers of The Riddle Ages will know all about Exeter Riddle 81 (“Fish and River”), which is based on a similar riddle, Symphosius’ Riddle 12.’ Another English writer, Alcuin of York also borrowed Symphosius’ fish riddle for his eclectic “wisdom” work, Peppin’s Disputation, at the turn of the 9th century. Fish also feature in Aldhelm’s Riddle 81 and Eusebius’ Riddle 40, as well as several ancient Greek riddles. It is not exactly relevant to today’s riddle, but I feel obliged to share my all-time favourite fish-riddle, an ancient Greek one attributed to Clearchus of Soli. It asks, “Which fish or variety of fish is the most delicious or the most precisely in season, and then which one is particularly good eating after Arcturus rises, or the Pleiades, or the Dog-Star?” There is no answer, except perhaps laughter. The joke is that the catching of fish, unlike crops, are not linked to the seasons, but the wealthy, urbane riddler does not understand this. Anyway, as we will see, the Bern fish riddle is a very intertextual one—it contains a lot of tropes and references to other Bern riddles. See how many you can find!

Fish
“Fish from an early 13th century bestiary from Peterborough, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511, Folio 86r. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)

The opening line takes the ‘creature who likes firm places’ trope from Riddle 4’s horse-bench and Riddle 10’s ladder. In this case, the fish subject cannot live in a ‘firm place’ (firmo loco). I have translated manens consistere simply as “dwell” for simplicity’s sake, but the sense is perhaps closer to the more prolix “remaining in firm places, I cannot endure.”

Many of the Bern riddles are about life or death, and several of them describe situations those where water can be a source of life. For example, water is the mother of salt (Riddle 4), papyrus (Riddle 27), sponge (Riddle 32) and ice (Riddle 38). ‘In Riddle 27, water is also the destroyer of fire. And in Riddle 23, water is both “life for all” (vitam cunctis) and death for fire. Here, the idea is rearranged, so that air is life and water is death for everyone except our aquatic friends.

The part of this riddle I struggle to make sense of are the references to the “warm bed” (lectus tepens) and “life bed within the cold” (vitalis torus sub frigora). After all, fish do not lie on beds or couches! Are these lines meant literally or figuratively, or both? Perhaps the “life bed” refers to the sea itself, or maybe the sandy floor where bottom-dwelling fish dwell. Or perhaps the idea is to depict the fish as if it were a long-suffering seafarer, who has rejected the comforts of warm beds on land? Answers on a postcard please!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Alcuin of York, Disputatio regalis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino scholastico. In Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi. Edited by L. W. Daly & W. Suchier. Champaign: The University of Illinois Press, 1939. Page 98.

Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Learned Banqueter, Volume V. Loeb Classical Library 274. Edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. Page 575. (The riddle is attributed to Clearchus of Soli.)

Symphosius, “Aenigma 12: Flumen et piscis” In Symphosius: The Aenigmata: An Introduction, Text and Commentary. Edited by T. J. Leary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, Page 41.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 31: De nympha
Original text:
Ore mihi nulla petenti pocula dantur,
Ebrius nec ullum reddo perinde fluorem.
Versa mihi datur vice bibendi facultas
Et vacuo ventri potus ab ima defertur.
Pollice depresso conceptas denego limphas
Et sublato rursum diffusos confero nimbos.
Translation:
No drinks are given to me when my mouth seeks them,
nor, when full of drink, do I give any drink in return.
At other times, I am given the ability to drink,
and a drink is given from the depths to the empty belly.
When a thumb is lowered, I refuse the contained liquids,
and when raised again, I bring rain-showers.
Click to show riddle solution?
Siphon


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 748.

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 577.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

The title of this riddle (De nympha) can mean several things. It can mean a young woman. It can mean one of the Nymphae, or sea nymphs, of classical mythology. It can mean the pupa of an insect. And it can mean water of some kind, for example, a body of water or a spring. I think you would agree that only the last of these can apply to this riddle!

Mercedes Salvador-Bello has argued that this riddle is probably about a kind of water container (Salvador-Bello, page 262, 466). I think that the solution of “siphon,” as favoured by several editors (see Glorie, page 577), is the most likely one. There is a problem, however—whereas the word nympha is grammatically feminine, the subject of the riddle is grammatically masculine. However, the word sipho (“siphon”) is masculine—lending credence to the idea that the title was changed at some point.

Siphon
“A siphon used in the beer-brewing process. Photograph (by KVDP) from Wikimedia Commons (public domain)”


Siphons work using “physics magic” (actually a combination of atmospheric pressure and electrostatic force) to draw a liquid from a lower point to a higher one. The ancient Romans applied this on a massive scale with aqueducts, but the riddle is describing something much smaller—perhaps a water fountain or tap of some kind, or maybe a device for transporting wine from one container to another.

The first line plays upon the idea that the siphon has an insatiable thirst, and yet its lips never touch a cup. This leads into the image of a drunk who refuses to pay his way, playing upon the word ebrius (line 2), which can mean both “drunk” and “full.” This is contrasted with those occasions (lines 3-4) when its “belly” (venter) is “empty” (vacuus), during which it has “the ability to drink” (bibendi facultas). The idea seems to be that the empty vessel into which the liquid is decanted will siphon or “drink” it, whereas the full vessel will not.

The final two lines explain that the riddle-creature “refuses” or “rejects” (denegare) liquids when a thumb is lowered, but that its raising brings “rain-showers” (diffusos… nimbos). This could conceivably refer to the act of drinking from a cup or pouring out an amphora, but it seems more likely that this refers to the regulating of the siphon system using a thumb. Perhaps this also suggests a medieval version of the pollice verso, the thumbs up or down signal used by spectators of ancient Roman gladiators.

The general theme to this riddle is giving and receiving drinks. I don’t think that it is a bad riddle, but I wonder whether it has as much depth as many other Bern Riddles do. On the other hand, it might be that I haven’t managed to tap into its true meaning.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Fr. Glorie, (ed.). Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 577.

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



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 32: De spongia
Original text:
Dissimilem sibi dat mihi mater figuram;
Caro nulla mihi, sed viscera cava latebris.
Sumere nil possum, si non absorbuero matrem,
Et quae me concepit, hanc ego genero postquam.
Manu capta levis, gravis sum manu dimissa,
Et quem sumpsi libens, mox cogor reddere sumptum.
Translation:
My mother gives me a face unlike hers;
I have no flesh, but only hollow insides with hidden places.
I cannot grasp anything if I have not swallowed my mother,
and afterwards I birth the woman who conceived me.
Light, I am grasped by the hand. Heavy, I am released by the hand.
And I am soon forced to return that which I willingly took.
Click to show riddle solution?
Sponge


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 748.

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 578.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

It is time to absorb the wisdom of this great riddle, which is all about a talking sponge and her strange, strange existence. The riddle continues the theme of watery things from the previous riddles on the fish and the siphon. It owes much to an earlier riddle by Symphosius (No. 63), an unknown writer who wrote 100 influential riddles, probably at some point between the third and fifth centuries, and likely in Roman North Africa—but it also adds a typically unconventional Bern riddle take on family relations (see Klein, page 406-7).

Sponge
“A sponge. Photograph (by Johan) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


The first line immediately draws our interest: who is the mother whose face is so unlike her daughter? A few lines later, the mother is swallowed and then born by her child. In case you didn’t get it already, the mother is the grammatically feminine aqua (“water”), who is soaked up and then squeezed out. Water is also described as a mother in several other riddles, which means that the sponge is the sister of salt (Riddle 4), papyrus (Riddle 27), and ice (Riddle 38). Don’t you just love the strange family relations of the Bern Riddles!

Line 2 describes the sponge’s fleshless viscera (“insides,” “entrails”). Riddles are often interested in the hidden interior world of things. Usually when this word is used in the Bern Riddles, it refers to a hidden thing of some kind, for example, a ship’s cargo (Riddle 11), or a fire-striker’s potential for fire (Riddle 23). Here, rather than describing a thing, it describes a nothing, i.e. the pores, or “hollow insides” (cava viscera), that the sponge uses to circulate water through its body when living. Symphosius includes a similar idea in his riddle—the sponge is patulis diffusa cavernis (“spread out with gaping caverns”) and intus lympha latet (“water hides within”).

Line 5 takes the idea of theft or capture and turns it on its head, as the sponge is “light” (levis) when it is “seized” (manu capta), but it is “heavy” (gravis) when “released” (manu dismissa). Again, this owes something to Symphosius’ riddle, which reads Ipsa gravis non sum, sed aquae mihi pondus inhaeret (“I am not heavy myself, but the weight of water sticks inside me.”). But the addition of the upturned capture/theft element is the Bern riddler’s own invention. The final line then subverts this second time, when the poor sponge is compelled to return its takings. What a brilliant twist to end the riddle on!

“A reminder that talking sponges are not unique to the Middle Ages.”


Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Symphosius, “Aenigma 63: Spongia” In Symphosius: The Aenigmata: An Introduction, Text and Commentary. Edited by T. J. Leary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Page 47.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Bern Riddle 4: De scamno
Bern Riddle 27: De papiro
Bern Riddle 38: De glacie

Bern Riddle 33: De viola

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 33: De viola
Original text:
Parvula dum nascor, minor effecta senesco
Et cunctas praecedo maiori veste sorores.
Extremos ad brumae me prima confero menses
Et amoena cunctis verni iam tempora monstro.
Me reddet inlustrem parvo de corpore spiritus,
Et viam quaerendi docet, qui nulli videtur.
Translation:
Small when I am born, I become smaller when I grow old,
and I come before all my better dressed sisters.
I am first to change in the last months of winter,
and I reveal the beautiful time of spring to everyone.
The breath from my small body will restore my shine,
and it is seen by no one, but it shows the way to those who ask.
Click to show riddle solution?
Violet


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 748.

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 579.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 33: De viola

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 33: De viola

Sometimes, riddles can tell the story of an entire lifetime in just a few lines—I call them tiny epics in several of my commentaries (for Riddles 12, 13, 24). Well, this riddle on the violet is another example of a tiny epic. It is also the first of four riddles on flowers.

The opening line explains that the plant grows smaller as it grows old. This seems to be referring to the wilting of the flower, although it may also reflect some other botanical detail, such as their low-growing nature. Sadly, it does not have anything to do with the phrase “shrinking violet,” which was not coined until the turn of the 20th century.

Violet1
“Violets. Photograph (by Remont) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


Line 2 explains that the violet comes before “all the better-dressed sisters” (cunctas… maiori veste sorores), and this theme is continued into lines 3 and 4. On the one hand, the riddle reflects botanical reality— violets typically flower in late winter and early spring, which is much earlier than most plants. On the other, it also borrows from an established literary tradition that presents the growth and flowering of the humble violet as a story of modest, and often chaste, beauty. Perhaps the best example, roughly contemporary with the Bern Riddles, is from a poem about violets written by the sixth century Frankish poet, Venantius Fortunatus, in one of his letters to Radegund, a former Frankish queen who became abbess of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers. In the poem, the violet arises early in spring, and its beauty is not as great as the larger rose or lily, but its nobility and regal purple sets it apart from the others.

If the season bore me the customary white lilies, or the rose were brilliant with dazzling scarlet, I would… send them gladly as a humble gift to the great…
Dyed with regal purple, they exhale a regal scent, and with their leaves pervade all with their scent and with their beauty. May you both have equally both of the things which they bear…
—Venantius Fortunatus, “Poem 8.6” (translated by Judith George)

Similarly, our riddle emphasises the violet’s smallness twice (lines 1 and 5), the conventional beauty of its sister-flowers (line 2), and its early flowering (line 3). It seems likely that the two texts are drawing on the same tradition, even if they are not directly linked.

Violet2
“Early dog-violets. Photograph (by H. Zell) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


The reference in Line 5-6 to the flower’s “soul” or “energy” (“spiritus”) fits nicely with the idea of modest beauty. However, it also recalls a line from an earlier riddle written by Symphosius, an enigmatic riddler who wrote 100 influential riddles, probably at some point between the third and fifth centuries: Spiritus et magnus, quamvis sim corpore parvo (“My soul is great, although I might have a small body”). Spiritus, which can mean soul, can also mean air or breath too—thus referring to the violet’s fragrance. And this can “show the way” to those who seek the plant, despite being “seen by no one.”

One of the things that I like about this riddle is how carefully the metaphors and double-meanings are crafted—botanical reality is carefully intertwined with ideas about aging, modesty, and the body and soul. It is the kind of riddle that really grows on you!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Venantius Fortunatus, “Poem 8.6: To Lady Radegund about violets.” In Judith George (ed. and trans.), Venantius Fortunatus: Personal and Political Poems. Translated Texts for Historians, Volume 23. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995. Page 70.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Bern Riddle 34: De rosa
Bern Riddle 35: De liliis
Bern Riddle 36: De croco

Bern Riddle 34: De rosa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 34: De rosa
Original text:
Puchram in angusto me mater concipit alvo
Et hirsuta barbis quinque conplectitur ulnis.
Quae licet parentum parvo sim genere sumpta,
Honor quoque mihi concessus fertur ubique.
Utero cum nascor, matri rependo decorem
Et parturienti nullum infligo dolorem.
Translation:
My mother bears me, beautiful, in a narrow womb,
and, hairy-bearded, she embraces me with five arms.
Although I belong to the humble family of my parents,
I am also honoured everywhere.
When I am born from the womb, I repay my mother with beauty
but not the pain of childbirth.
Click to show riddle solution?
Rose


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 749.

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 580.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 34: De rosa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 34: De rosa

The second of four riddles on flowers, this one tackles several thorny issues. Roses were grown extensively as garden ornaments and for commercial cultivation in ancient Rome, and they became a common plant in medieval monastic gardens. The Plan of St Gall, an architectural drawing of an ideal monastery from the early ninth century, included several gardens, including a physic garden for roses, as well as lilies and various herbs.

Roses
“The physic garden, from the 9th century Plan of St Gall (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1092). Photograph from e-codices, Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)”


As we usually find with other Bern Riddles that use the mother-and-childbirth trope, we are asked to guess the identity of the parent. The mother who bears the beautiful flower in angusto alvo (“in a narrow womb”) is the rose plant, who carries her “child” in the bud. Line two plays upon the meanings of barba, which can mean both “(beard) hair” and the hair on plants. The five embracing arms are the five sepals, i.e. the outer parts of the bud that open, star-shaped, to reveal the flower. The final two lines continue the theme of unconventional childbirth by noting that the rose-child spares her mother “the pain of childbirth” (parturienti dolor).

rose2
“Rose buds, showing the long, spiky sepals. Photograph (by JLPC) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


The riddle continues the theme of noble humility from the violet riddle, explaining that the rose family is both lowly and honoured everywhere. The latter probably refers to its use as a decoration, both in monastic gardens and as a cut flower. It may also allude to the rose’s association with the Virgin Mary, although this is not an overt one.

I mentioned thorns in the introduction, but, unusually for a riddle on roses, it doesn’t actually mention thorns at all. In fact, it is really about the rose flower, rather than the whole plant, which it depicts using themes of humility, beauty, and unconventional childbirth. The saying goes “every rose has its thorn,” but that’s not the case for this riddle!”


Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Touw, Mia. “Roses in the Middle Ages.” Economic Botany. Volume 36 (1982). Pages 71–83.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 33: De viola
Bern Riddle 35: De liliis
Bern Riddle 36: De croco

Bern Riddle 35: De liliis

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 35: De liliis
Original text:
Nos pater occultus commendat patulae matri,
Et mater honesta confixos porregit hasta.
Vivere nec umquam valemus tempore longo,
Et leviter tactos incurvat aegra senectus.
Oscula si nobis causa figantur amoris,
Reddimus candentes signa flaventia labris.
Translation:
A secret father entrusts us to an open mother,
and our honorable mother offers us up, fastened to a spear.
We can never live for a long time,
and sickly old age easily bends us at a touch.
If kisses are planted upon us for the sake of love,
gleaming white, we give yellow marks to the lips in return.
Click to show riddle solution?
Lilies


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 749.

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 581.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 35: De liliis

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 35: De liliis

The third of four flower riddles, this riddle invites us to consider the lilies. It is a rare example of a plural speaker, along with found in Riddle 25 (letters) and Riddle 61 (stars). As with roses , lilies were often grown for ornamental, culinary, and medical purposes in monastic gardens.

“He’s having a go at the flowers now.”


The riddle begins with a combination of an unusual birth and a juxtaposition of opposites—we are challenged to identify the pater occultus (“secret father”) and patula mater (“open mother”). In another context, the idea of a secret father might hint at some kind of illicit relationship or affair, or perhaps an abandoned child of unknown parentage. The “open mother” might also suggest promiscuity. But, in the case of the lily flower, the father is presumably the bulb and roots hidden in the soil and the mother is the foliage from which the spear-like stem emerges.

Lilies
“Lilium candidum. Photograph (by Stan Shebs) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


Lines three and four put the lily’s finite flowering period and its wilting into a tragic context—the plant’s flower-children cannot ever live for a long time. I wonder whether the poet expects us to empathise with the lily here, or if they intended our sympathies to vanish with the realisation that the subject is non-human. The question is unanswerable, but it worth considering this whenever non-human riddle-creatures are given voice.

The final lines describe the lily as an object of human desire—a fitting way to describe a flower valued for its beauty. In Riddle 33, humans sought out the violet for its fragrance. Here, they “kiss” the violet “for the sake of love” (causa amoris) when they put their faces close to smell its scent. In return, the lily gives yellow pollen to the lips. Should we ask what is in it for the lily, or is it silly to apply this to plants? Again, this is a very difficult question. Several scholars have remarked how interested the Bern Riddles are with the utility of objects and plants for human beings (Salvador-Bello, page 257-263; Roosli, page 101). By presenting these uses in atypical, anthropomorphic ways, the riddles re-lily make us think about the ethics of the relationship between humans and non-humans.

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. Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata. Morgantown, West Virginia University Press, 2015.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 33: De viola
Bern Riddle 34: De rosa
Bern Riddle 36: De croco

Bern Riddle 36: De croco

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 36: De croco
Original text:
Parvulus aestivas latens abscondor in umbras
Et sepulto mihi membra sub tellore vivunt.
Frigidas autumni libens adsuesco pruinas
Et bruma propinqua miros sic profero flores.
Pulchra mihi domus manet, sed pulchrior infra.
Modicus in forma clausus aromata vinco.
Translation:
Tiny, I lurk hidden in the summer shadows,
and once buried, my limbs live underground.
I am happily accustomed to autumn’s freezing hoarfrost
and thus I offer up wondrous flowers as winter arrives.
My home is beautiful, but it is more beautiful beneath.
Sealed and small in shape, I surpass all spices.
Click to show riddle solution?
Crocus


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 749.

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 582.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 36: De croco

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 36: De croco

This riddle brings our flowery quartet of riddles to an end. It also completes the cycle of the seasons—the flower series began with the early-flowering violet of Riddle 33, and now they end with the late-flowering crocus.

Crocus
“Crocus tommasinianus. Photograph (by Martyn M aka Martyx) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


Like other medieval riddles, the Bern Riddles are interested in secrets and hidden things— which is very appropriate, since riddles themselves are forms of concealment to be revealed by the careful reader. In this case, our riddle subject tells us “I lurk hidden in the shadows” (latens abscondor in umbras), with its limbs buried underground throughout the summer and autumn, before bursting into flower with the beginning of winter. Similarly, the meanings of riddles lie dormant until solved, when they offer up their own “wonderous flowers.” Thus, the riddle also dramatises the process of solving riddles. We often think of self-referentiality as a very postmodern artistic idea—in the way that, for example, a Quentin Tarantino film might refer very self-consciously to the conventions of a particular genre. But riddles have always been a very “meta” form of literature, long before postmodernity existed.

Crocus3
“Saffron harvesting, mid-15th century, from Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Lat 9333. 37v. Photograph from BNF Gallica (public domain)”


Lines 5 and 6 describe how the crocus can be harvested for saffron, which is “tiny” (modicus) and “sealed away” (clausus) until the petals open to reveal the saffron-bearing stigmas. Note that the speaker changes from the plant to its product at this point—we saw something similar with Riddle 28’s silk(worm). Saffron was popular across the Mediterranean world, where it was used as a food flavouring and a dye. This suggests a southern European origin for the riddles (Klein, p. 404), although it is certainly not conclusive. Although there is no evidence for it being grown in pre-Conquest England, it was probably imported for dying textiles, since there are references to this in several Anglo-Latin texts (Biggam, pp.19-22).

Sadly, it’s time to say goodbye to the flower riddles once and flor-all. But there is still some continuity—if you turn to the next riddle, you will find that it is just as spicy as this one!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Biggam, C.P. “Saffron in Anglo-Saxon England.” Dyes in History and Archaeology, Volume 14 (1996). Pages 19-32.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 26: De sinapi
Bern Riddle 27: De papiro
Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce
Bern Riddle 33: De viola
Bern Riddle 34: De rosa
Bern Riddle 35: De liliis
Bern Riddle 37: De pipere

Bern Riddle 37: De pipere

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 37: De pipere
Original text:
Pereger externas vinctus perambulo terras
Frigidus et tactu praesto sumenti calorem.
Nulla mihi virtus, sospes si mansero semper,
Vigeo nam caesus, confractus valeo multum.
Mordeo mordentem morsu nec vulnero dente.
Lapis mihi finis, simul defectio lignum.
Translation:
An outsider, I wander foreign lands in fetters,
and, cold to the touch, I supply heat to those who seek me.
I have no power if I always remain intact,
for I can do much when beaten, and I am very powerful when broken.
I bite the biter with a bite, but I do not wound with the tooth.
Stone is my end, wood is my ruin.
Click to show riddle solution?
Pepper


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 750.

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 583.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 37: De pipere

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 10 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 37: De pipere

I love the sharp, woody taste of pepper and I use it in a lot of my cooking. People in medieval Europe clearly felt the same way as I do, since pepper was extraordinarily popular across the continent, and this demand helped drive the lucrative medieval space trade between Asia, North Africa, and Europe. The Spanish encyclopaedist, Isidore of Seville, writing in the first half of the 7th century, warned about unscrupulous merchants adding old pepper to their wares. Less plausibly, he also claimed that pepper plantations in India were defended by fierce snakes who were driven away by setting the pepper on fire (Etymologies, page 349). Pepper seems to have been popular amongst riddlers too—Aldhelm of Malmesbury wrote a riddle on pepper (No. 40), which mentions the use of pepper in sauces and stews.

Pepper
“Black peppercorns. Photograph (by Xitop753) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


The riddle begins by describing the transportation of the pepper using the evocative image of a cold exile, wandering through “foreign lands” (externas terras) when tied up or fettered (vinctus). To my eye, this seems to be playing on the idea of the wandering penitent. Penance in early medieval Europe could be a very arduous act for some, especially if they could not pay a financial restitution. One of the more serious forms of penance was usually reserved for certain types of murder or sexual transgressions, and it involved exile and vagrancy, often in chains and barefoot. The pain from the chains was intended to bring about contrition, and the cold was thought to chasten lust—which may explain why our riddle-creature is frigidus… tactu (“cold to the touch”).

The idea of violent criminals wandering around the countryside cannot have been universally popular, and church authorities made several attempts to end the practice in the ninth and tenth centuries (Hamilton, page 173). One of my favourite early medieval examples of fettered exile is found in a late seventh Irish text, Muirchú moccu Machtheni’s Life of St. Patrick. According to this, Patrick converted a murderous brigand called Macc Cuill (also known as Maughold), who wanted to make restitution for his crimes. Patrick commanded the humbled penitent to chain his feet and throw away the key, and then leave Ireland immediately in a small boat without rudder or oar (ed. Bieler, I.23). Macc Cuill did as he was told, and ended up on an island called Evonia, eventually becoming a bishop. Could this be the kind of penitential exile that the riddler wanted to evoke?

Lines 3 and 4 describe the apparent paradox that pepper is more powerful when beaten and broken. This violent act against a wretched exile becomes a positive act when we recognise that it refers to the pepper’s grinding. This leads to its destruction by stone and wood in line 6—this presumably alludes to its crushing with a mortar and pestle.

Onion
“Another riddle-creature that bites! Photograph (by Darwin Bell) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 2.0)”


Line 5, with its “I bite the biter” (Mordeo mordentem), is a reworking of Symphosius’ riddle on the onion (No. 44), which mordeo mordentes, ultro non mordeo quemquam (“I bite the biters, but I do not bite anyone without cause”). Teeth and biting were a common trope in medieval riddles. Symphosius mentions them in two other riddles, Nos. 60 (saw) and 61 (anchor). Bern Riddle 43 uses them to describe the biting wind. The 8th century Tatwine and Eusebius collections use biting to describe a bell (Tatwine Riddle 7), and a scorpion (Eusebius Riddle 51). And Symphosius’ motif also features in an Old English riddle, No. 65, which is also about an onion.

Cold exiles in fetters, paradoxical beatings and breakings, and biting and teeth. As I’m sure you will agree, there’s a lot to chew on in this riddle.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Bieler, Ludwig [ed. and tr.]. The Patrician Texts in The Book of Armagh, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 10. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1979. The original Latin is available here and a Modern English translation is available here.

Hamilton, Sarah. The Practice of Penance, 900-1050. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2002.

Symphosius, “Aenigmata 44, 60 & 61.” In Symphosius: The Aenigmata: An Introduction, Text and Commentary. Edited by T. J. Leary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, Pages 45 & 47.

Tatwine, “Aenigma 7.” In Fr. Glorie (ed.). Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968, Page 174.

Eusebius, “Aenigma 51.” In Fr. Glorie (ed.). Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 261.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Exeter Riddle 65
Bern Riddle 43: De vermicolis siricis formatis

Bern Riddle 38: De glacie

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 38: De glacie
Original text:
Corpore formata pleno de parvulo patre,
Nec a matre feror, nisi feratur et ipsa.
Nasci vetor ego, si non genuero patrem,
Et creta rursus ego concipio matrem.
Hieme conceptos pendens meos servo parentes,
Et aestivo rursus ignibus trado coquendos.
Translation:
Created with full body by a lowly father,
I am not born of woman unless she herself is born.
I am not allowed to be born unless I give birth to my father,
and once born, I conceive my growing mother again.
Hanging in winter, I look after my conceived parents,
and when summer returns, I hand them over to be cooked on fires.
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 750.

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 584.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 38: De glacie

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 10 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 38: De glacie

Riddle 38 is, to misquote Vanilla Ice’s appallingly bad 1991 smash hit, all about an “ice-baby.” At least, that’s if we believe the titles given in the manuscripts!

This one is a real oddball description of paternity and maternity—the riddle-creature gives birth to her father and mother, whom she then gives up to be cooked on fires (ignibus coquendos) in the summer. What a lovely child! Like so many of the Bern Riddles, we are challenged to work out what this all means.

I’ll admit that I find some aspects of this riddle obscure. My best guess is that the mother (line 2) is “water” (aqua) and the father (line 1) is “cold” (either algus or gelus). If this is the case, then the riddler may well be playing with a putative etymology of the Latin word for ice (glacies) from Isidore of Seville’s 7th century encyclopaedia, The Etymologies—as a combination of “cold” (gelus) and “water” (aqua) (Etymologies, page 274). Another possibility is that the riddle’s solution was wrongly written down, but if so, what else floats or hangs in winter, before cooking its parents in the summer? This riddle appears between riddles on pepper and ivy, so maybe it is a seasonal plant of some kind.

Ice1
“Is the answer an icicle? Photograph (by Connor Slade) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


Other aspects of the riddle are equally obscure. The mother and daughter give birth to one another, and the one cannot “be carried” or “be born” (feror) to the other unless she is “herself carried” or “born” (feratur…ipsa)? This process seems to be cyclic, and perhaps it alludes to a lake of some kind, where the same water becomes ice each year—thus the watery mother and the icy daughter give birth to each other. But how does the daughter give birth to her father? Perhaps the idea is that winter cold creates the ice, which then retains the coldness of winter. However, this doesn’t explain why the father is parvulus (“lowly,” “tiny,” or “young”). The description in line 5 of the creature as “hanging” or “floating” (pendens) is a little easier to explain, as it could apply to an icicle, river ice, or an iceberg.

Ice2
“Is the answer an iceberg? Photograph (by Andreas Weith) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


This is one of the few Bern Riddles that leaves me genuinely perplexed. Perhaps you can make out the meaning of this icy riddle better than I see it? if so, I would love to hear your ideas.

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.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Exeter Riddle 33

Bern Riddle 39: De hedera

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 39: De hedera
Original text:
Arbor mihi pater, nam et lapidea mater;
Corpore nam mollis duros disrumpo parentes.
Aestas me nec ulla, ulla nec frigora vincunt,
Bruma color unus vernoque simul et aesto.
Propriis erecta vetor consistere plantis,
Manibus sed alta peto cacumina tortis.
Translation:
My father is a tree, and my mother is rocky;
soft-bodied, I break up my hard parents.
Summer’s heat and winter’s cold do not destroy me,
and I have the same colour in winter, spring, and summer.
Upright, I am not allowed to stand on my feet,
but I seek high summits with twisted hands.
Click to show riddle solution?
Ivy


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 750.

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 585.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 39: De hedera

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 12 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 39: De hedera

After the obscurity of Bern Riddle 38, we now come to the very transparent Bern Riddle 39. When you compare the approaches of the two riddles, it is hard to imagine that they were written by the same person, Indeed, it is quite possible that they were not. If I really had to, I would bet that Riddles 38 and 39 were written by the same author—but I wouldn’t want to put my own money on it! There are some signs that the two riddles are linked, as they share some important vocabulary: both include the verbs vincere (“to defeat, destroy”) and vetari (“to be allowed”). The riddle also contains features found in other Bern Riddles, such as the parents and the seasons motifs, as well as the word plantae (“feet” or “roots”), which is also used in Bern Riddles 10, 11, 51, 52, and 54.

Ivy
“Ivy and its “father” (or “mother”). Photograph (by Derek Ramsey) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: GNU FDL 1.2)”


Lines 1 and 2 are quite literal. Usually, the Bern Riddles expect us to guess the identity of the riddle-subject’s parents. But here the riddle does everything for us, explaining that the father is a tree (arbor mihi pater) and “the mother is rocky” (lapidea mater). Ivy will climb both tree and stone, and so the two are, in a sense, its parents. The only problem is that the father, arbor, is feminine and the mother, lapis, is masculine. Perhaps the riddler got the two words mixed up, or perhaps it is not as straightforward as I made it out to be! Regardless, this all fits very nicely with the motif of the child destroying its parents, which features in several Bern riddles. Line 2 explains that the ivy is “soft-bodied” and yet it can destroy its “hard” parents. This alludes to the damage that ivy can do to the bark of weakened trees or to the exposed cracks and joins of stonework.

IVY2
“Ivy and its “mother” (or “father”). Photograph (by Storye Book) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”


Lines 3 and 4 explain that ivy is perennial and evergreen. The ivy’s imperviousness to the heat of summer contrasts nicely with the parents of Riddle 38’s ice, who are “cooked” by the same heat. But the lines in our riddle do not feel as enigmatic as we would usually expect with the Bern riddles. The final two lines are a bit more cryptic, referring to the fact that ivy does not support itself with its own plantae (“feet” or “roots”), and imagining its clambering creepers as “twisted hands” (manus tortae).

This riddle takes us to the end of the series of plant riddles that began with the violet of Riddle 33. I don’t think that there’s much more to say about Riddle 39, except that it is a bit too literal for my tastes. Then again, maybe it’ll grow on me.

Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 10: De scala
Bern Riddle 11: De nave
Bern Riddle 38: De glacie
Bern Riddle 51: De alio
Bern Riddle 52: De rosa
Bern Riddle 54: De insubulis

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