A note on the animal riddles

Many exeter book riddles describe animals. They include: Riddle 5 (whistling swan), Riddle 6 (nightingale), riddle 7 (cuckoo), riddle 8 (barnacle goose), riddle 10 (ox), riddle 11 (ten chickens), riddle 13 (fox), riddle 22 (magpie), riddle 36 (ox), riddle 40 (cock and hen), riddle 55 (swallows), riddle 70 (ox), riddle 74 (oyster), riddle 75 (lamprey), and riddle 81 (fish and river). As always, the above are taken from Williamson's Feast of Creatures.

The presence of birds is intriguing. As is the multitude of oxen.

But the most interesting thing is that of these 15 riddles, only 4 (ten chickens, the ox of riddle 36, cock and hen, and swallows) are written in the third person. All the rest are spoken from the voice of the creature itself. It could also be argued that in the case of the ten chickens, cock and hen, and swallows, a first person voice is perhaps impossible since the riddle describes multiple animals rather than just one. The ox of riddle 36 is then the sole creature described from a third person perspective.

Kathleen Wall's post at Blue Duets addresses writing about animals. Wall writes, "The animals on our planet remain an 'other' that we will never thoroughly understand. It's useful, for all kinds of ethical reasons, to experience and acknowledge that fact. Among other things, it takes the human and human knowledge out of the centre of the universe for a few minutes. Also, if we use our imaginations to understand the dog or cat who lives with us, that imagination might, because it's getting some exercise, grow stronger."

In speaking from the perspective of the "other," the exeter riddles retain a sense of wonder at this unknown. Some of the animal riddles describe the pain suffered at the hands of man. Others anthropomorphize the animals as beautiful singers and women. There are two exeter riddles describing inkhorns (84 and 89), and in each the inkhorn speaks in the first person, describing his life as an oxen before being viciously taken from his twin brother and made to serve his master.

Do these riddles give a voice to the other, or do they appropriate their images? Perhaps both? (Neither?)

The exeter riddles' use of persona, concealment, and masking are interesting in their own right. But I find the abundance of animals--creatures typically regarded as the other who in these poems speak directly to the reader and implore him to guess their name-- eerie and wonderful, and worth further exploration.

I should note that I personally have not written any riddles about animals. After this, the notion may be impossible to ignore.

For further reading: Bitterli, Dieter. Say What I am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book and the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. Toronto: U of T press, 2009. Bitterli writes at length on the animal riddles!