Anglo-Saxon Riddles
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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Anglo-Saxon Riddles
Photo by ~~~johnny~~~
When Greek travelers visited what is now Great Britain in the fourth century B.C., they found an island settled by tall blond warriors who called themselves Celts. Among these island Celts was a group called Brythons (or Britons), who left their permanent stamp in one of the names (Britain) eventually adopted by the land they settled.
Photo by young shanahan
The religion of the Celts seems to have been a form of animism, from the Latin word for “spirit.” The Celts saw spirits everywhere—in rivers, trees, stones, ponds, fire, and thunder. These spirits or gods controlled all aspects of existence, and they had to be constantly satisfied.
Photo by MuseumWales
Priests called Druids acted as intermediaries between the gods and the people. Sometimes ritual dances were called for, sometimes even human sacrifice. Some think that Stonehenge—that array of huge stones on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire—was used by the Druids for religious rites having to do with the lunar and solar cycles.
Photo by arslua
Beginning with an invasion led by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. , the Britons were finally conquered by the legions of Rome. They built a network of roads (some still used today) and a great defensive wall seventy-three miles long. During Roman rule, Christianity, which would later become a unifying force, gradually took hold under the leadership of European missionaries. The old Celtic religion began to vanish.
Photo by smackfu
If the Romans had stayed, Londoners today might speak Italian. But the Romans had troubles at home. By A.D. 409, they had evacuated their troops from Britain, leaving roads, walls, villas, and great public baths, but no central government. Without Roman control, Britain was a country of separate clans. The result was weakness, which made the island ripe for a series of successful invasions by non-Christian peoples from the Germanic regions of Continental Europe.
Photo by mharrsch
This time the attack came from the north. In the middle of the fifth century, the invaders, Angles and Saxons from Germany and Jutes from Denmark, crossed the North Sea. They drove out the old Britons before them and eventually settled the greater part of Britain. The language of the Anglo-Saxons became the dominant language in the land which was to take a new name—Engla land, or England—from the Angles.
Photo by IanVisits
But the latest newcomers did not have an easy time of it. The Celts put up a strong resistance before they retreated into Wales in the far west of the country. There, traces of their culture, especially their language, can still be found. One of the heroic Celtic leaders was a Welsh chieftain called Arthur, who developed in legend as Britain’s “once and future king.”
Photo by vintagedept
What does “Anglo-Saxon England” mean?
Here are some key features of this age of warriors:
• Anglo-Saxon society developed from kinship groups led by a strong chief.
• The people farmed, maintained local governments, and created fine crafts, especially metalwork.
• Christianity eventually replaced the old warrior religion, linking England to Continental Europe.
• Monasteries were centers of learning and preserved works from the older oral tradition.
• English—not just the Church’s Latin—gained respect as a written language.
Photo by stuant63
The Anglo-Saxon communal hall, besides offering shelter and a place for holding council meetings, also provided space for storytellers and their audience. As in other parts of the ancient world (notably in Homeric Greece more than one thousand years earlier), skilled storytellers, or bards, sang of gods and heroes. The Anglo-Saxons did not regard these bards (called scops) as inferior to warriors. To the Anglo-Saxons, creating poetry was as important as fighting, hunting, farming, or loving.
Photo by wit
The poets sang to the strumming of a harp. As sources for their improvisational poetry, the storytellers had a rich supply of heroic tales that reflected the concerns of a people constantly under threat of war, disease, or old age. For the non-Christian Anglo-Saxons, whose religion offered them no hope of an afterlife, only fame and its reverberation in poetry could provide a defense against death. Perhaps this is why the Anglo-Saxon bards, uniquely gifted with the skill to preserve fame in the collective memory, were such honored members of their society.
Photo by Adam Piotrowski
Key Literary Elements in Anglo-Saxon Poetry
Photo by peripathetic
Alliteration: A figure of speech in which consonants, especially at the beginning of words, or stressed syllables, are repeated: "Five miles meandering with a mazy motion."
Photo by Marxchivist
Caesura: (Latin: "a cutting") A break or pause in a line of poetry, dictated, usually, by the natural rhythm of the language … In Old English verse the caesura was used to indicate the half line.
Photo by Crossett Library Bennington College
Kenning: a compact metaphor that functions as a name or epithet; it is also, in its more complex forms, a riddle in miniature.
For example:
a) helmberend—"helmet bearer" = "warrior"
b) beadoleoma—"battle light" = "flashing sword"
c) swansrad—"swan road" = "sea"
Photo by stevecadman
32
Our world is lovely in different ways,
Hung with beauty and works of hands.
I saw a strange machine, made
For motion, slide against the sand,
5 Shrieking as it went. It walked swiftly
On its only foot, this odd-shaped monster,
Traveled in an open country without
Seeing, without arms, or hands,
With many ribs, and its mouth in its middle.
10 Its work is useful, and welcome, for it loads
Its belly with food, and brings abundance
To men, to poor and to rich, paying
Its tribute year after year. Solve
This riddle, if you can, and unravel its name.
Photo by Kotomi_
A Ship
Photo by infomatique
A creature came through the waves, beautiful
And strange, calling to shore, its voice
Loud and deep; its laughter froze
Men’s blood; its sides were like sword-blades. It
swam
5 Contemptuously along, slow and sluggish,
A bitter warrior and a thief, ripping
Ships apart, and plundering. Like a witch
It wove spells—and knew its own nature,
shouting:
“My mother is the fairest virgin of a race
10 Of noble virgins: She is my daughter
Grown great. All men know her, and me,
And know, everywhere on earth, with what joy
We will come to join them, to live on land!”
Photo by Vegar S Hansen Photography
A worm ate words. I thought that wonderfully
Strange—a miracle—when they told me a crawling
Insect had swallowed noble songs,
A night-time thief had stolen writing
So famous, so weighty. But the bug was foolish
Still, though its belly was full of thought.
Photo by Ozyman
A Bookworm
Photo by shine_blitz_on
