RIDDLE POSTS BY TAG: 'LATIN'

Eusebius Riddle 38: De pullo

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Cum corio ante meo tectus vestitus et essem,
Tunc nihil ore cibi gustabam, oculisque videre
Non potui. Pascor nunc escis, pelle detectus
Vivo, sed exanimis transivi viscera matris.

Translation:

Before, when I was covered and dressed in my shell,
Then I tasted nothing of food with my mouth, and I was unable to see
With my eyes. Now I am nourished on food, I live
Stripped of my skin, but inanimate, I traversed my mother’s innermost parts.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the chick


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Riddle 38: De carbone

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Exul sum generis factus motante figura.
Postquam me perdendo ferox invaserat hostis,
Expertem penitus vita formaque relinquens,
Officinae servum deinceps me iussit haberi.

Translation:

I was made an exile from my kind by my changing form.
After a fierce enemy entered me, destroying me,
Leaving me completely without life and shape,
He then ordered me to be kept as a slave of the workshop.

Click to show riddle solution?
On charcoal


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 38: Tippula

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022
Original text:

Pergo super latices plantis suffulta quaternis
Nec tamen in limphas vereor quod mergar aquosas,
Sed pariter terras et flumina calco pedestris;
Nec natura sinit celerem natare per amnem,
Pontibus aut ratibus fluvios transire feroces;
Quin potius pedibus gradior super aequora siccis.

Translation:

I proceed on waters propped up on my four feet,
And yet I do not fear being drowned in the watery lakes,
But I go on foot equally on land and stream.
Nature does not permit me to swim through the fast flow
Nor to cross fierce rivers on bridges or boats;
Rather, I step with dry feet over the water.

Click to show riddle solution?
Water-insect


Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.



Tags: riddles  latin  Aldhelm 

Symphosius Riddle 38: Tigris

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

A fluvio dicor, fluvius vel dicitur ex me.
Iunctaque sum vento, quae sum velocior ipso;
Et mihi dat ventus natos nec quaero maritum.

Translation:

I am named after a river, or else the river is named after me.
And I am joined to the wind, which I am faster than;
And the wind gives me sons, I do not seek a mate.

Click to show riddle solution?
Tiger


Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.



Tags: riddles  solutions  latin  symphosius 

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 

Eusebius Riddle 39: De I littera

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Effigie gracilis sum, usurpans famina regum.
Nempe, mearum grossior est me quaeque sororum,
Sed me vis sequitur maior, nam sola duarum
Et regimen hominis aliaque sceptra patrabo.

Translation:

Slender in appearance, I carry out the speech of kings.
Certainly, each of my sisters is stouter than I,
But greater strength follows me, for alone of two 
I achieve the control of man and other powers.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the letter “I”


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Riddle 39: De cote

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Natam me gelido terrae de viscere dicunt,
Inclita Romanis sed et urbs dudum vocitabar.
Sordida, calcantum pedibus nunc sternor, inermis.
Ridet acumine qui rodens me lingit abunde.

Translation:

They say I was born from the icy inside of the earth,
But previously I used to be called a famous city by the Romans.
Now, dirty, unarmed, I am scattered underfoot.
The nibbling one who licks me plentifully smiles with a sharpened point.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the whetstone


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 39: Leo

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022
Original text:

Setiger in silvis armatos dentibus apros
Cornigerosque simul cervos licet ore rudentes
Contero nec parcens ursorum quasso lacertos;
Ora cruenta ferens morsus rictusque luporum
Horridus haud vereor regali culmine fretus;
Dormio nam patulis, non claudens lumina, gemmis.

Translation:

Shaggy, I crush boars armed with teeth in the woods
And at the same time antlered stags, although they roar with their mouth,
And sparing nothing, I quash bears’ arms;
Bearing my bloody mouth, wolves’ bite and maw, 
I, frightening and supported by royal eminence, do not fear at all;
For I sleep with my eyes wide open, not closing them.

Click to show riddle solution?
Lion


Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.



Tags: riddles  latin  Aldhelm 

Symphosius Riddle 39: Centaurus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Quattuor insignis pedibus manibusque duabus
Dissimilis mihi sum, quia sum non unus et unus.
Et vehor et gradior, quia me mea corpora portant.

Translation:

Famous for my four feet and two hands
I am unlike myself, because I am not one and the same.
I both ride and walk because my bodies carry me.

Click to show riddle solution?
Centaur


Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.



Tags: riddles  solutions  latin  symphosius 

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 

Tatwine Riddle 40: De radiis solis

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Summa poli spatians dum lustro cacumina laetus,
Dulcibus allecti dapibus sub culmine curvo
Intus ludentem sub eodem temporis ortu
Cernere me tremulo possunt in culmine caeli
Corporis absens. Plausu, quid sum pandite, sophi!

Translation:

While I, proceeding happily, illuminate the high peaks of the heavens,
Those admitted to the sweet feasts under the curved roof
Can observe me at the same sunrise playing inside and
On the trembling summit of the heavens
Without a body. With applause, wise men, reveal what I am!

Click to show riddle solution?
On the suns’ rays


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Eusebius Riddle 40: De pisce

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Non volo penniger aethram; non vago rura pedester.
Sic manibus pedibusque carens, me pennula fulcit.
Trano per undisonas ac turgida cerula lymphas,
Astriferumque polum et sublime peragro tribunal.

Translation:

I do not fly, winged, through the air; I do not roam the fields on foot.
Thus lacking hands and feet, a fin supports me.
I swim through the roaring waters and swollen sea,
And I travel through the starry sky and the judgement seat on high.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the fish


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Aldhelm Riddle 40: Piper

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022
Original text:

Sum niger exterius rugoso cortice tectus,
Sed tamen interius candentem gesto medullam.
Dilicias, epulas regum luxusque ciborum,
Ius simul et pulpas battutas condo culinae;
Sed me subnixum nulla virtute videbis,
Viscera ni fuerint nitidis quassata medullis.

Translation:

I am black on the outside, covered with a wrinkled shell,
Yet inside I bear a shining core.
Kitchen’s delights, kings’ dishes, and culinary luxuries,
Sauce and also stewed meats I flavour;
But you will see me to be based on no strength 
If my innards are not crushed for their gleaming core.

Click to show riddle solution?
Pepper


Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.



Tags: riddles  latin  Aldhelm 

Symphosius Riddle 40: Papaver

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Grande mihi caput est, intus sunt membra minuta;
Pes unus solus sed pes longissimus unus.
Et me somnus amat, proprio nec dormio somno.

Translation:

My head is big, the parts inside are small;
Only one foot, but a very long one foot.
And sleep loves me, but I do not sleep in my own sleep.

Click to show riddle solution?
Poppy


Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.



Tags: riddles  solutions  latin  symphosius 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 17 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula

I have mixed feelings about this riddle about a mousetrap. On the one hand, I think it is a brilliant read. On the other, I like rodents a lot and so I endorse the use of humane mousetraps, which work just as well as lethal ones. I suppose I am a bit like Chaucer’s prioress in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, who was said to wepe, if that she saugh a mous / Kaught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde (“General Prologue,” lines 144-5). According to Mercedes Salvador-Bello, this riddle begins a long section on miscellaneous things, which continues to the end of the riddles (Salvador Bello, page 263).

Mousetraps are an ancient technology and there are numerous designs. They also featured occasionally in medieval art and literature, usually with reference to the Devil. For example, Augustine described the Cross as a muscipula diaboli (“mousetrap for the devil”) (“Sermon 263,” page 220). On other occasions, the mousetrap is set by the devil to catch unsuspecting souls. But this riddle seems less interested in theology and religious allegory, and more interested in describing the trap itself using paradoxes and cunning wordplay.

Mouse
“Wood mice are occasionally vagantes (“wanderers”) into human homes. Photograph (by Rasbak) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


This riddle starts off with a nice bit of juxtaposition. Lines 1 and 2 use two contrasting past participles—extensa (“extended,” “stretched out”) and soluta (“loosened, unfastened” “solved,”)—to describe how a trap can only work when placed under load or tension. The verb solvere is particularly common in riddles (see Nos. 3, 22, 42 and 50A) because it casts a knowing wink to the idea of solving riddles. Here, it alludes to the mechanism of the trap, but whether the device is based on a spring, torsion, or deadfall is unclear. Line 1 also describes the mice as vagantes (“wanderers”), which is an apt way of describing those tiny rodent “exiles” who wander about the “foreign lands” of the human home. This, along with the reference to vincula (“bonds, chains”) in the same line, recalls Riddle 37’s wandering pepper—a great example of how the Bern riddler uses overlapping ideas and themes in playful ways.

Lines 3 and 4 describe the trap as a hungry predator, who “has no belly” (venter mihi nullus) but has “many mouths” (multa… ora) to feed itself. Perhaps these mouths are holes in a box, each of which has an individual noose or hammer “to catch limbs” (pro membris…tenendi). The final two lines uses the wealth and poverty trope found in earlier riddles on the sheep (No. 22), parchment (No. 24) silkworm (No. 28). The mousetrap tells us that it is unprofitable “if I am hung up in the air” (si pendor ad auras) but wealthy if “I am left stretched out” (si tensa dimittor). This may indicate that the mechanism is only useful when under tension, or it could simply mean that a mousetrap hung up in the air is useless—you could say that this is de-bait-able.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Augustine of Hippo. “Sermon 263. On the Fortieth Day, The Ascension of the Lord.” In Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons (230-272B). Edited and translated by John E. Rotelle. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. New Rochelle: New City Press, 1993. Pages 219-221.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.” In The Riverside Chaucer. Edited by Larry D. Benson & F. N. Robinson. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pages 23-36.

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

Scott-Macnab, David. “Augustine’s Trope of the Crucifixion As a Trap for the Devil and Its Survival in the English Middle Ages.” Viator. Volume 46 (2015). Pages 1-20.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 3: De sale
Bern Riddle 22: De ove
Bern Riddle 24: De membrana
Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce
Bern Riddle 37: De pipere
Bern Riddle 42: De glacie
Bern Riddle 50A: De charta

Bern Riddle 41: De vento

NEVILLEMOGFORD

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


Notes:

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

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



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Eusebius Riddle 41: De chelidro serpente

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Argolici me dixerunt septena cephala
Olim habuisse, vocorque inmitis scedra Latine.
Ex quibus unum cum caput esset ab ense peremptum,
Illius extimplo vice trina manare solebant.
Sic mihi tunc nullus poterat confligere miles.
Sed me ardente gigas combusserat Hercules igne.
Sum pululans locus ex lymphis vastantibus urbem.

Translation:

The Greeks once said that I had seven
Heads, and I am called in Latin “cruel water-snake.”
When one of the heads was cut off by a sword,
Three would immediately spring in its place.
Thus could no soldier then fight me.
But the giant Hercules consumed me with burning fire.
I am a place, sending out waters devastating a city.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the Hydra (or, literally, Amphibious Serpent)


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Conclusion

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Conclusio poetae de supra dictis enigmatibus

Versibus intextis vatem nunc, iure, salutat,
Litterulas summa capitum hortans iungere primas
Versibus extremas hisdem, ex minio coloratas.
Conversus gradiens, rursum perscandat ab imo.

Translation:

The conclusion of the poet of the riddles noted above

Now one, by right, bids farewell to the poet with his interwoven verses,
Encouraging the first little letters at the top of the sections,
and then the last, coloured in red lead, to govern these verses.
Going in reverse, let the reader climb up from the bottom anew.

Click to show riddle solution?
The conclusion of Tatwine's riddle collection


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 41: Puluillus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022
Original text:

Nolo fidem frangas, licet irrita dicta putentur,
Credula sed nostris pande praecordia verbis!
Celsior ad superas possum turgescere nubes,
Si caput aufertur mihi toto corpore dempto;
At vero capitis si pressus mole gravabor,
Ima petens iugiter minorari parte videbor.

Translation:

I do not want you to lose faith, although what I say may be deemed useless,
But open your trusting heart to my words!
I am able to swell up higher to the upper clouds,
If a head is taken from me with my whole body removed;
But if I am to be weighed down, compressed by the weight of a head,
I will always seem to be reaching toward the bottom, diminished in size. 

Click to show riddle solution?
Pillow


Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.



Tags: riddles  latin  Aldhelm 

Symphosius Riddle 41: Malva

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Anseris esse pedes similes mihi, nolo negare.
Nec duo sunt tantum, sed plures ordine cernis;
Et tamen hos ipsos omnes ego porto supinos.

Translation:

I do not wish to deny that my feet are similar to those of a goose.
There are not just two, but you see more in a row;
And yet I carry all these same feet upside down.

Click to show riddle solution?
Mallow


Notes:

This edition is based on Raymond T. Ohl, ed. The Enigmas of Symphosius. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1928.



Tags: riddles  solutions  latin  symphosius 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 41: De vento

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 01 Mar 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 41: De vento

What kind of a riddle-creature is fast and strong, bites without a mouth, raises up the weak, and is more powerful than Hercules? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.


The wind was a popular topic in early medieval scientific works such as Isidore of Seville’s early 7th century De natura rerum and Bede’s early 8th century De natura rerum, both of which drew on a wide range of classical and late antique learning. These texts were often accompanied by diagrams of the twelve winds, such as the one below. The wind was also a popular subject for early medieval riddlers. Aldhelm of Malmesbury wrote a wind riddle (Aldhelm Riddle 2), which begins “no one can see me” (cernere me nulli possunt), before describing how it blows all around the countryside, shattering oaks. And the Exeter Book contains three back-to-back riddles (or one, depending on your perspective) about different kinds of wind—you can read Megan’s commentary on them here.

Winds
“Rota of the winds, Walters Art Museum W.73, fol. 1v. Photograph (by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts) from Flickr (public domain>).”


Our riddle stresses the wind’s awesome power using several common Bern themes and motifs. Line 1 employs the birth motif to frame the idea that the wind is fast and strong. And Line 2 describes the wind’s power to push down heavy things and lift things up in terms of raising up the weak and humbling the strong. This makes the riddle creature sound rather Christ-like, just as we found with the resurrected cup and grain in Riddles 6 and 12, as well as Riddle 22’s humble sheep. Finally, Lines 4 and 5 recall the multiple mouths of the previous riddle on the mousetrap, and the mention of biting recalls several earlier riddles (see my discussion of this trope in the commentary to Bern Riddle 37).

Line 6 explains that the wind is invisible but more powerful than any human, including some of the strongest men in history, such as “the Macedonian” (i.e. Alexander the Great), Liber (the Roman god of fertility and wine, often used interchangeably with Dionysius), and Hercules. The author cited these three based on a longstanding classical and medieval tradition of attributing a series of conquests of India to them. (Alexander did invade the Indus Valley basin in 326-5 BCE, but the others are entirely mythical.) For example, Pliny the Elder wrote in the 1st century CE that:

Haec est Macedonia, terrarum imperio potita quondam…haec etiam Indiae victrix per vestigia Liberi Patris atque Herculis vagata…

Such is Macedonia, which once won a world-wide, empire… and even roamed in the tracks of Father Liber and of Hercules and conquered India…
—Pliny, Natural History. Book 4, pages 146-7.

Similar associations can be found in a wide range of sources, from classical works by Ovid (The Metamorphoses, pages 180-1) and Seneca (Oedipus, pages 54-5) to the medieval travel works, The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle (Orchard, pages 240-1) and the Liber Monstrorum (Orchard, pages 290-3), that feature in the Nowell codex alongside Beowulf.

Like many other Bern Riddles, there is a lot of stuff going on in six short lines—they go far beyond the obvious statements about the wind being powerful yet invisible. Perhaps this riddle doesn’t exactly blow me away in the same way that some of the most creative riddles do, but I’m definitely still a big fan.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

“Liber Monstrorum” and “The Old English Letter from Alexander to Aristotle.” In Andy Orchard, Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995. Pages 224-317.

Cesario, Marilina. “Knowledge of the weather in the Middle Ages: Libellus de disposicione totius anni futuri.” In Marilina Cesario and Hugh Magennis (eds.), Aspects of Knowledge. Preserving and Reinventing Traditions of Learning in the Middle Ages. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018. Pages 53-78.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books 1-8. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 42. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.

Pliny the Elder. Natural History, Books 3-7. Edited and translated by H. Rackham. Loeb Classical Library 352. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942.

Seneca the Younger. Oedipus. In Tragedies, Volume II: Oedipus. Agamemnon. Thyestes. Hercules on Oeta. Octavia. Edited and translated by John G. Fitch. Loeb Classical Library 78. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.

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



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

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Commentary for Exeter Riddles 1-3
Bern Riddle 6: De calice
Bern Riddle 12: De grano
Bern Riddle 22: De ove
Bern Riddle 37: De pipere
Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula

Bern Riddle 42: De glacie

NEVILLEMOGFORD

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


Notes:

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

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



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Eusebius Riddle 42: De dracone

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Horrendus, horriferas (1) speluncae cumbo latebras.
Concitus, aethereis volitans, miscebor et auris
Cristatusque volans, pulcher turbabitur aether.
Corpore vipereas monstra vel cetera turmas
Reptile sum superans gestantia pondus inorme.
Inmanisque ferus praeparvo pascitur ore
Atque per angustas assumunt viscera venas
Aethereum flatum; nec dentibus austera virtus
Est mihi, sed mea vim violentam cruda tenebit.

Translation:

Horrendous, I lie in the horrible recesses of a cave.
Provoked, flying through the upper regions, I will mix with the wind,
And when I, crested, fly, beautiful heaven will be disrupted.
I am a reptile exceeding in size the crowds of vipers
Or other monsters carrying enormous weight.
And the savage beast is fed through a very small mouth
And through narrow veins do its innermost parts receive
Airy breath; nor do my teeth have powerful strength,
But my tail contains a violent force.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the dragon


Notes:

(1) The manuscript, Royal MS 12 C XXIII, has astriferas (“starry” as in “starry recesses”).



Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius