The Exeter Book Riddles

Great book, but I just wanted to clear up a few things that most people do not know. The Exeter Books riddles were never published with the answers. Thus, the answers in this book are not necessarily what the Anglo-Saxons intended, but just accepted answers. And depending on who in the scholarly world you talk to, the numbers of riddles, and the translation of those riddles is quite different.

I was enthralled with this book. I had never encountered Anglo-Saxon riddles before, and they're a delight - not your stupid Elephant riddles, but elegant poems, each one describing something in a teasing way.The book has the riddle on one page and the explanation on the next, so when I was reading them I used to make sure I didn't look ahead until I'd solved it. Sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn't. But it's more fun than a crossword puzzle. (And sometimes those ol'Anglo Saxons surprise you - wait till you get to the one about "I grow upright in a bed... hairs underneath..." I won't spoil it by telling you the answer!