RIDDLE POSTS BY CONTRIBUTOR: NEVILLEMOGFORD

Boniface Riddle 17: Ignorantia ait

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021
Original text:
Iam dudum nutrix errorum et stulta vocabar:
Germine nempe meo concrescunt pignora saeclis
Noxia peccati late per limina mundi,
Ob quod semper amavit me Germanica tellus,
5  Rustica gens hominum Sclaforum et Scythia dura.
Adsum si gnato, genitor non gaudet in illo.
Non caelum terramve, maris non aequora salsa
Tranantem solem et lunam, non sidera supra
Ignea contemplans quaero, quis conderet auctor.
10  Altrix me numquam docuit, sapientia quid sit.
Altera sordidior saeclis non cernitur usquam.
Idcirco invisam vocitat me Grecia prudens,
Tetrica quod numquam vitans peccamina curo.
Translation:
For some time now, I have been called a dolt and the nursemaid of errors:
indeed, from my seed the guilty children of sin
spread widely in the world, to the ends of the earth,
because the German soil has always loved me,
5  the rustic tribe of the Slavs and hard Scythia.
If I am born, a father does not rejoice.
Gazing outwards, I do not ask what creator founded
the earth or sky, the sun and moon crossing
the salty surface of the sea, and the stars burning above.
10  A nursemaid never taught me what wisdom is.
No one filthier is seen anywhere on earth.
For that reason, the wise Greeks call me the unseen one,
because I never try to run from terrible sins.
Click to show riddle solution?
Ignorance


Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 9 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 19 in Orchard’s edition.



Commentary for Bern Riddle 17: De cribro

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 22 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 17: De cribro

Sometimes riddle-reading can be very inten-sieve! Today’s riddle is about a sieve—not a kitchen sieve, but an agricultural one.

The opening two lines of this riddle are a great example of riddling disguise and misdirection, describing the sieve as if it were a loquacious Mr Ed. Line 1 explains that the riddle creature’s mouth that is always open and the lips that are never sealed—a quality of both sieves and talkative people. Line 2 goes on to describe how the creature is urged on its cursus (“course”) by frequenti verbere (“a well-used whip” or “a frequent blow”). It describes the act of shaking the sieve as if it were the whipping of a horse, which recalls the eccentric horse-bench of Riddle 4. The material that is being sieved is probably flour—made with Riddle 12’s grain and Riddle 9’s millstone—which is being separated from any bran or other impurities and made finer for baking.

“Talking horses aren’t just in riddles.”

The sieve begins to come into focus in line 3, which tells us that the object has no exta (“insides, bowels”) unless they are placed in there by hand, referring to its concave nature. The riddle then describes sieving as a violent act—the minutum vulnus (“tiny wound[s]”) represents the sieve’s holes, and the moving is the act of sieving.

The last two lines were not the easiest to translate, but the general idea is of separating good (i.e. the flour) from bad (i.e. the bran). This idea has distinctly a biblical feel, and I suspect that the author had Jesus’ remark to Simon Peter that Satan would sift the disciples like wheat (Luke 22.31). Whether he did or not, the central motif in this part of the riddle is that the sieve, who is left with only the detritus, gets the worst of the deal. Even worse, he is then abandoned, having served his purpose. What a sad ending for the poor sieve!

Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 4: De scamno
Bern Riddle 9: De mola
Bern Riddle 12: De grano

Bern Riddle 18: De scopa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 18: De scopa
Original text:
Florigeras gero comas, dum maneo silvis,
Et honesto vivo modo, dum habito campis.
Turpius me nulla domi vernacula servit
Et redacta vili solo depono capillos;
Cuncti per horrendam me terrae pulverem iactant,
Sed amoena domus sine me nulla videtur.
Translation:
I bear flowering foliage when I live in the woods,
And I live in a respectable way when I dwell in the fields.
At home, no servant has a filthier job than me,
and, led about the vile floor, I shed my hair.
Everyone drags me through the earth’s wretched dust,
but no home looks nice without me.
Click to show riddle solution?
Broom


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 743.

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 564.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Boniface Riddle 18: Vana gloria, iactantia

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021
Original text:

Versicolor varie migrans per saecula lustro,
Auribus atque oculis serviens per devia duco.
Non una specie, varia sed imagine ludo,
Auri flaventis passim argentique micantis
5  gemmiferas species, ut ament, mortalibus apto,
Luciflua ut perdant venturae praemia vitae.
Omnigeno iugiter mortales agmine vasto:
Rurigenas animas perdens per vulnera sterno,
Incautis semper furtim mea spicula mitto.
10  Arte mea perdunt multi pia facta laboris.
Ieiunium pariter, solamina et pauperis aegri,
Almisonaeque preces claris cum laudibus una
Clam pereunt, factor si non est cautus in actu.
Talia patrantem vocitant me “virgo maligna,”
15  Aurea venturae qui quaerunt munera vitae.
Non cesso spolians plures mercede futura.
Terrigenas Christi pervertens omnia tempto,
Intemerata fides nusquam ut videatur in orbe.
Aeterna infelix perdet habitacula miles,
20  Et gemma et aurum et vestis, lanugine texunt
Quam Seres vermes, propria ad mea iura recurrunt.
Omnia humanis non necessaria rebus,
Quae homines longe lateque habere videntur.
Usibus ecce meis serviunt sub mente superba.
25  Falsior inter nos probatur nulla sororum.

Translation:

I wander across the world, changing into different colours;
serving the ears and eyes, I lead them in devious ways.
I do not have one shape, but rather I play around in various forms.
I prepare the jewelled shapes of yellow gold
5  and sparkling silver for mortals everywhere, so that they love them
and lose utterly the splendid rewards of the life to come.
I constantly ruin mortals in all kinds of groups:
destroying country-born souls, I smash them down with injuries,
and I always cast my arrows stealthily at the unsuspecting.
10  By my art, many utterly lose the sacred results of their labour.
Fasting, along with the comfort of the poor and sick
and nourishing prayers, together with loud praise—
these mysteriously perish if the doer is not careful in the doing.
Doing such things, I am called “evil virgin”
15  by those who seek the golden gifts of the life to come.
I do not stop stripping many people of future rewards.
Corrupting Christ’s earth-dwellers, I test everything,
so that undefiled faith is never seen on earth.
The unlucky soldier loses the eternal home utterly.
20  The jewel, gold, and clothes woven in thread
by silkworms—they come back to my own possession.
There is nothing essential in the human things
that people are seen to have, far and wide.
Behold! Under a proud mind, they serve my purposes.
25  None among the sisters is shown to be falser.

Click to show riddle solution?
Vainglory


Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 10 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 20 in Orchard’s edition.



Commentary for Bern Riddle 18: De scopa

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 22 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 18: De scopa

Those readers who have seen Disney’s Fantasia will know all about the enchanted broom-on-legs whom the sorcerer’s apprentice summons to do his chores, with unintended consequences. Well, this riddle is about another anthropomorphic broom—but this time, the broom does not get the upper hand.


The riddle tells the story of an apparently respectable woman from the woods, who is transformed into a wretched and much-abused servant in the home. It also tells the story of a tree branch that is made into a broom. The riddle is all about power and status. It plays upon the social standing of the maidservant in the home, which it compares to the broom’s “servitude” to humans. As Samuel Röösli explains, the broom and the servant are the same “in that they both suffer a loss of agency and dignity in the interior space to which they are confined and which they must keep lovely” (Röösli, page 99). Often in classical and medieval texts, it is the wild woods and countryside that are associated with dishevelment and a humble station, but here they are linked to the domestic world. The movement from the countryside to the home also has a sexual element to it—the flowering of the branch in nature is juxtaposed against the filthiness of its work as a broom, probably with ideas of virginity and promiscuity in mind.

If we were not aware that the subject is a broom, then lines 4 and 5 of this riddle would be extremely disturbing. The servant-broom’s turpis (‘filthy’ or ‘sordid’) work would be a horrific act of domestic abuse—she is dragged about the floor so that she loses her hair (i.e. the straw or twigs of the broom’s head). Even more concerning is the fact that “everyone” (cuncti) participates in this abuse. The Bern Riddles often give you the sense that all humans are guilty of violent acts against the non-human world–and this is a prime example. They also frequently depict this violence as necessary for human life, as we see in the final line—despite her tribulations, the servant-broom nevertheless makes the home look beautiful. Just as the servant is considered equally lowly and indispensable, so is the humble broom.

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) 37. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2020. Pages 87-104.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 18: De scopa

Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice
Original text:
Dissimilem sibi me mater concipit infra
Et nullo virili creta de semine fundor.
Dum nascor sponte, gladio divellor a ventre.
Caesa vivit mater, ego nam flammis aduror.
Nullum clara manens possum concedere quaestum;
Plurem fero lucrum, nigro si corpore mutor.
Translation:
My mother—I am unlike her—conceives me within,
and I am born and made from no manly seed.
While I am born willingly, I am ripped from the womb with a sword.
Cut, my mother lives on, for I am burnt by flames.
Retaining my shine, I can give no profit;
I carry more value if my body is turned dark.
Click to show riddle solution?
Wax or pitch


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 744.

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 565.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Boniface Riddle 19: Neglegentia ait

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021
Original text:
Non est in terris me virgo stultior ulla,
Existens cunctis neglectu audacior una.
Grates dedignor domino persolvere dignas,
Limpida quoque modo perlustrent lumina terras,
5  Et caeli speciem depingent sidera pulchram,
Gentis humanae aut dominus quis conditor esset,
Ex qua re varias voluisset fingere formas.
Non ignara mali, recti sum nescia vivens.
Tot hominum leges et iussa altissima Christi
10  Infringens semper spernendo querere nolo,
Aut quid praeciperet mortalibus arbiter orbis.
Ardua non cupio, vereor non ima profundi.
In terra mortem timeo, non vivere curo,
Talibus exuberans dicor “stultissima virgo.”
Translation:
There is no maiden on earth stupider than me,
being singularly more daring in neglect than everyone.
I do not condescend to pay the appropriate thanks to the Lord
for the way in which the bright lights wander the earth
5  and the stars decorate the beautiful sight of the sky,
or for who the creator and lord of the human race might be,
and for what reason he wished to create the various forms.
Living, I am not ignorant of wrong, but I do not know right.
I do not want to seek, and I always reject and break,
10  so many human laws and the highest commands of Christ,
or anything the ruler of the world might have commanded mortals.
I long for the heights, I do not fear the depths.
On earth, I fear death, but I don’t care about living,
and, flourishing in such ways, I am called “the stupidest maiden.”
Click to show riddle solution?
Negligence


Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 1 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and 11 in Orchard’s edition.



Commentary for Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 27 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice

Sometimes, the Bern Riddles like to make us work hard for their solutions. You might remember Bern Riddle 16, which can be solved as either citrus fruit or cedar/juniper berry. Well, this is another riddle where we get to choose the solution. Many manuscripts give it the title of De pice (“About Pitch”), but one gives De nimpha (“About the fountain/siphon”) and another gives De cera (“About [bees]wax”). My preference is definitely “wax,” which fits with the next two riddles (“honey” and “bee”). Having said all this, it is a tricky riddle to read, and it took me quite a while to work out how the solution fits—see if you agree with my reading.

Wax2
“Beeswax. Photograph (by Frank Mikley) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)

The first two lines are all about likeness between a mother and her child—as with so many other riddles, we are expected to guess who the parent is. Originally, I thought that she was a mould for wax candles, but recently I have changed my mind: the mother is the beehive, who is utterly unlike her child, and who gives birth to the wax without any “manly seed” (virili… de semine). The wax caps are then cut out of the honeycomb “womb” (venter) by humans. As line 3 explains, although the hive has had the wax cut from it, it “lives on.” In this way, the riddle uses the virgin birth and caesarean birth motifs that we have already come across with Bern Riddle 8’s egg.

Candle
“6th/early 7th century beeswax candles, found in the Frankish-Alemannic graveyard of Oberflach, near Tuttlingen, Germany. Photograph (by Andreas Franzkowiak) from Wikipedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)

The wax is then burnt as a candle. Most early medieval candles would have been made of tallow, but expensive beeswax candles burnt brighter and with a more pleasant odour. Because of this, beeswax candles were frequently reserved for their use in liturgy, and particularly the Easter Vigil, where a candle would be lit on the night of Holy Saturday in the image of the Resurrection.

The final two lines are quite tricky to account for. Why is wax only valuable when it is darkened? My best guess is that these lines refer either to the process of rendering beeswax (i.e. melting and then straining it) to remove any impurities, or to the process of hand-dipping candles. If heated excessively, both processes can lead to the wax being discoloured. But I would welcome any other suggestions. Like I said, the Bern Riddles like to make us work!

Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 8: De ovo
Bern Riddle 16: De cedride
Bern Riddle 20: De melle
Bern Riddle 21: De apibus

Bern Riddle 20: De melle

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 27 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 20: De melle
Original text:
Lucida de domo lapsus diffundor ubique,
Et quali dimissus modo, non invenit ullus.
Bisque natus inde semel in utero cretus,
Qualis in conceptu, talis in partu renascor.
Milia me quaerunt, ales sed invenit una
Aureamque mihi domum depingit ab ore.
Translation:
Falling from a bright home, I am scattered everywhere
and, banished, no one finds out how.
Born twice, then grown once in the womb,
I am born again, in conception as in birth.
Thousands seek me, but only the flyer finds me
and paints a golden home for me with its mouth.
Click to show riddle solution?
Honey


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 744.

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 566.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Boniface Riddle 20: Iracundia loquitur

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Wed 28 Jul 2021
Original text:

Ignea sum fervens, turbo precordia bellis,
Rixarum iactans iugiter per corda venenum,
Antiquos sceve lacerando dissipo amicos.
Caraam iustitiamque dei mox disseco demens.
5  Viribus atque meis valeo depellere sensus,
Nesciat ut ratum mens vano errore decepta.
Dextera namque mea tradet fera corpora loeto,
Inscia baccatur quando vertigine caeca.
Ardentes agito sermones ordine stulto,
10  Lurida rixarum populis fera semina spargo.
Omnipotens mandat sanctis me absistere templis;
Quae me circumstent non deinde pericula cerno.
Vox mea terrificis vaga personat alta loquelis,
Irrita dicta ferens et raro sentio vera.
15  Talibus in rebus spatior retrograda vivens.
Vana superstitione mea volo semper adesse,
Ritibus angelicis expellor ab aethere summo.

Translation:

I burn and I burn, I stir up the stomach to war,
constantly throwing the poison of conflict around hearts.
I separate old friends through wicked slandering
and, insane, I quickly chop up the beloved justice of God.
5  I can drive away the senses with my powers
so that the mind, deceived by empty error, does not know reason,
For my cruel right hand gives bodies to violent death
when it rages, mindless, in a blind whirlwind.
I toss about fiery speeches in a stupid form,
10  and I scatter cruel, horrific seeds upon the nations.
The all-powerful one orders me to leave the sacred temples,
and then I do not see the dangers that surround me.
My deep voice resounds, rambling with terrifying words,
carrying inane speech, and I rarely think about truths.
15  Living in such ways, I walk backwards.
I always want to be around with my pointless superstition,
and I am expelled from highest heaven by the rites of angels.

Click to show riddle solution?
Anger


Notes:

This edition is based on Ernst Dümmler, (ed.). Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Volume 1. Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1881. Pages 1-15. Available online here.

Note that this riddle appears as No. 2 (De vitiis) in Glorie’s edition and No. 12 in Orchard’s edition.



Commentary for Bern Riddle 20: De melle

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Thu 28 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 20: De melle

This riddle is, to quote everyone’s favourite 90s Scottish noise-pop band, The Jesus and Mary Chain, “just like honey”—mainly because it is all about honey! It is the second of three bee-themed riddles (see Riddle 19 and Riddle 21).


Beekeeping was an important and very profitable economic activity throughout the European Middle Ages. Honey was a sweetener for food, it was a medicine, and it was fermented to produce mead; beeswax was used to make candles, adhesives, waterproof clothing, and paints, among other things.

In Italy, the ancient Roman culture of beekeeping continued into the early medieval period, albeit affected by the general decline in trade of the fifth and sixth centuries. Beekeeping was enthusiastically adopted by many monastic houses. The image below, taken from a late eleventh century Easter scroll (known as an “exultet roll”) from Monte Cassino gives us an idea of what these monastic beehives might have looked like—here, a beekeeper is harvesting wax from the hive.

Bees
“Beekeeper removing wax from a hive, BL Additional 30337, fol. 10. Photograph from The British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts (licence: CC0 1.1)

Bees were also kept in pre-Conquest England. The Rectitudines Singularum Personarum, an English manual of estate management from c. 1100, mentions that a freeman who keeps bees (a beoceorl) should pay a tax to the landowner of 4 sestels (about 10 pints) of honey per year (Rectitudines, 6). Other English texts mention fines for theft from beehives (Attenborough, pages 68-71), and what to do if bees kill someone by stinging them—kill them and eat their honey (OE Scrifboc, CCC MS 190, fol. 382)! Bees and honey also feature in Old English poetry: Exeter Book Riddle 27 and the brilliant Old English metrical charm, For a Swarm of Bees.

Bees 2
“Bees and beehives from a 14th century French bestiary, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 151, f. 69v. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)

Bern Riddle 20 begins by describing honey that is dripping “from the bright home” (lucida de domo) and scattered in a mysterious way. Reading this for the first time, you might think that the “bright home” is the beehive. But the riddle seems to be alluding to something much more interesting—the idea that honey is a form of dew created in the heavens, which falls upon plants and is collected by bees. If this is the case, then the “bright home” would be the sky. Several classical and medieval sources mention this belief, including Virgil and Isidore of Seville. Perhaps the most memorable description is found in Pliny the Elder’s encyclopaedic Natural History:

Venit hoc ex aere et maxime siderum exortu… sublucanis temporibus. Itaque tum prima aurora folia arborum melle roscida inveniuntur, ac si qui matutino sub divo fuere, unctas liquore vestis capillumque concretum sentiunt, sive ille est caeli sudor sive quaedam siderum saliva sive purgantis se aeris sucus.

[Honey] comes from the air, and largely from the rising of the stars… shortly before dawn. Thus, at first light, the leaves of the trees are found moist with honey, and if someone who has been under the morning sky, they feel their clothes are damp and their hair is matted, whether this is the sky’s moisture, or some kind of saliva of the stars, or the juice of the vomiting air.]
—Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book XI, page 450. (translation mine)

Pliny was writing this in the 1st century AD, but his work continued to be influential throughout the early medieval period—Isidore of Seville used it when writing his own encyclopaedia, as did Bede. Interestingly, the riddle’s reference to the uncertain nature of celestial honey (line 2) also agrees with what Pliny says here. Perhaps the riddler was familiar with Pliny’s work? After all, the use of encyclopaedia-knowledge is very common in medieval riddles (see Mercedes Salvador-Bell, Isidorean Perceptions of Order).

The rebirth in lines 3 and 4 returns to the religious motif of rebirth and resurrection that appears in Riddles 6, 12, 13. But it also describes how the bees collect the nectar from the plants and then regurgitate it into the honeycomb. We saw in Riddle 19 that the honeycomb was a “womb” (venter). Likewise, here it is a “womb” (uterus), within which the honey “grows.”

Bees 3
“Bees and beehives from an early 13th century bestiary from Peterborough, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511, Folio 75v. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)

In the final two lines, the thousands who seek honey are the humans who crave its sweet taste. The “flyer” (ales is, of course, the bee. Since bees create their honeycomb cells using regurgitated wax, it can be said that they “paint” their “golden home” (aureum domum) using their mouths.

Like many works of medieval literature on the natural world, Riddle 20 is a mix of curious myths and detailed observational truths. On the one hand, it mistakes pollen-collecting with celestial honey-collecting. At the same time, it recognises how bees build their honeycombs. It is a mixture of nature documentary and an un-bee—lievable story!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

“Charm for a Swarm of Bees.” In Robert E. Bjork (ed. and trans.), Old English Shorter Poems, Volume II.Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2014. 216-7

“Laws of Alfred.” In Frederick Attenborough (ed. and trans.), The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922. Pages 62-93. (The text is also available in the original and with a German translation, in Felix Liebermann (ed.), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Vol. 1. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1903. Pages 46-87. Available at Archive.org)

The Old English Scrifboc (or The Confessional of pseudo-Egbert) in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 190, folios 387-413. Available at Parker Library on the Web.

Rectitudines Singularum Personarum. Early English Laws, IHR/King’s College London. Website. https://earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/rect/

Banham, Debbie. Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pages 104-5, 135-6.

Kritsky, Gene. “Beekeeping from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages.” Annual Review of Entomology, Volume 62 (2017). Pages 249-264.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Volume IX: Books 33-35. Loeb Classical Library 394. Translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, Mass.: harvard University Press, 1952.

Price, Helen. “A Hive of Activity: Realigning the Figure of the Bee in the Mead-Making Network of Exeter Book Riddle 27.” Postmedieval, Volume 8 (2017). 444-462.

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:
Exeter Riddle 27
Bern Riddle 6: De calice
Bern Riddle 12: De grano
Bern Riddle 13: De vite
Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice
Bern Riddle 21: De apibus

Bern Riddle 21: De apibus

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 21: De apibus
Original text:
Masculus qui non sum sed neque femina, coniux.
Filios ignoto patri parturio multos.
Uberibus prolem nullis enutrio tantum;
Quos ab ore cretos nullo de ventre sumpsi.
Nomen quibus unum natisque conpar imago,
Meos inter cibos dulci conplector amore.
Translation:
I am a spouse who is neither man nor woman.
I am pregnant with many sons to an unknown father.
I feed an infant without using breasts;
I collected with my mouth those born out of no womb.
The children have a single name and a similar look.
With sweet love, I surround my children with food.
Click to show riddle solution?
Bees


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 744.

Line 4 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 567.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 21: De apibus

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 29 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 21: De apibus

We have already had riddles about beeswax and honey. Now we turn to the bees themselves. RELEASE THE BEES!

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

This riddle begins with a variation on the virgin birth trope that also appears in Riddles 8 and 19. In this case, the speaker is a “spouse” (coniux) who is masculus non… sed neque femina (“neither man nor woman”). Moreover, the father is ignotus (“unknown”). These lines play with two ideas about bees that sometimes crop up in late antique and medieval texts: their apparent sexlessness and their spontaneous generation. For example, Ambrose of Milan, writing in the 4th century, says:

Communis omnibus generatio, integritas quoque corporis virginalis omnibus communis et partus, quoniam neque inter se ullo concubitu miscentur, nec libidine resolvuntur, nec partus quatiuntur doloribus, et subito maximum filliorum examen emittunt, e foliis et herbis ore suo prolem legentes.

Procreation is common to all, as is childbirth and the chastity of the virgin body, since neither do they mix between themselves in any sexual intercourse, nor is their libido unleashed, nor are their childbirths affected with pains, and they suddenly send forth a huge swarm of offspring, gathering the child from leaves and blades of grass.
–Ambrose, Hexameron, Book V, 21, 68 (PL14:234B).

As a result of ideas like this, bees became associated in the visual arts and literature with ideas of virginity, chastity, and the Virgin Mary. The spontaneous generation of bees is repeated in line 4 of the riddle—whereas the previous two riddles described the hive as a “womb,” the bee has none.

Bees 4
“Bees travelling between flowers and the hive. From a 13th century English bestiary, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, folio 89r. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)

Line 4 also has an interesting crux: ab ore cretos… sumpsi. If you did not know the context, you might be tempted to read it as “I consumed… by mouth.” Thus, it would be referring to a gruesome act of cannibalistic fratricide! However, the correct translation is probably “I gather… by mouth.” This alludes to another medieval bee “fact” mentioned in Ambrose’s passage that I quoted earlier—the idea that bees gather their larvae from plants. When I think about it, sumpsi (“I gathered”) might even have the sense of “adopted” which would fit nicely with the unknown father of line 2.

The final line describes how the larvae are surrounded with food in the honeycomb, which involves a nice little pun on dulci amore (“with sweet love”). Oh, how nice it is to have a riddle with an unambiguously sweet ending!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Ambrose, Hexameron. In Jacques Paul Migne (ed.), Sancti Ambrosii Opera Omnia, Vol. 1.1. Patrologia Latina 14. Paris: Migne, 1845. Columns 123-475. Available at Google Books.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 8: De ovo
Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice
Bern Riddle 20: De melle

Bern Riddle 22: De ove

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 22: De ove
Original text:
Exigua mihi virtus, sed magna facultas:
Opes ego nulli quaero, sed confero cunctis.
Modicos oberrans cibos egena requiro
Et ieiuna saepe cogor exsolvere censum.
Nullus sine meo mortalis corpore constat
Pauperaque multum ipsos nam munero reges.
Translation:
I have little courage but great resources:
I seek wealth from no one, but I give it to everyone.
Wandering and poor, I seek humble foods,
And, hungry, I am often forced to give up my wealth.
No mortal endures without my body,
And I am poor, yet I give generously even to kings.
Click to show riddle solution?
Sheep


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 745.

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 568.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 22: De ove

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 29 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 22: De ove

Some riddles are very good, and some are just baaaa… Immediately after the three bee riddles (Riddles 19, 20 and 21), we come to another creature who produces a valuable commodity: the sheep.

The opening line tells us that the riddle-subject has little virtus, a word derived from the Latin word vir (“man”), and which can mean “manliness” or “virility” as well as “courage” and “excellence.” This description is easy to grasp. Even though some sheep can be remarkably feisty, sheep are not well-known for their courage—and this was true in the Middle Ages too. For example, Isidore of Seville, writing in the early 7th century, tells us in his Etymologies that the sheep is molle pecus lanis, corpore inerme, animo placidum (“a placid livestock animal with an unarmed body and a peaceful disposition”) (Isidore, Etymologies, page 247). The first line of the riddle also says that the sheep has facultas, which plays on two meanings of the word: “capacity” and “abundance.” The primary meaning seems to be “I have little courage but great resources” but you could also read it as “I have little courage, but I am really capable.”

Sheep
“A flock of lovely sheep. From a mid-13th century English bestiary, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, Folio 35v. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)

The middle section of the riddle depicts the sheep as an itinerant wanderer or pilgrim. The metaphor is a very apt one for an animal who wanders about the field or hillside, always hungry for grass and having given up her “wealth” (i.e. her fleece). Wandering riddle-creatures feature in several other Bern riddles, including Nos. 37 (pepper), 40 (mice), 41 (wind) and 59 (moon). I will be going into more depth on the topic of “wanderers” in my forthcoming commentary on Riddle 37, so watch this space!

In the final two lines, the image of the poor, wandering sheep is juxtaposed against the idea that the sheep has a great wealth, fit for everyone, even kings. Perhaps this image of the humble and placid creature, upon whom we nevertheless all depend, is intended as an allegory for Christ. After all, Jesus is frequently depicted in medieval liturgy and art as the Lamb of God, based the title that John the Baptist is said to have bestowed upon him. However, the fact that the sheep is female might give us second thoughts. This seems to be another example of the riddler playing with the boundaries of the sacred and the profane. What do ewe think?

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:
Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice
Bern Riddle 20: De melle
Bern Riddle 21: De apibus
Bern Riddle 37: De pipere
Bern Riddle 40: De muscipula
Bern Riddle 41: De vento
Bern Riddle 59: De luna

Bern Riddle 23: De igne

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 23: De igne
Original text:
Durus mihi pater, dura me generat mater,
Verbere nam multo huius de viscere fundor.
Modica prolatus feror a ventre figura,
Sed adulto mihi datur inmensa potestas.
Durum ego patrem duramque mollio matrem,
Et quae vitam cunctis, haec mihi funera praestat.
Translation:
My father is hard, my hard mother makes me,
for, after a great bashing, I am born from her insides.
At birth, I am taken from the womb in a tiny form
but I am given great power as an adult.
I soften my hard father and hard mother,
and that which is life to all is my funeral.
Click to show riddle solution?
Fire


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 745.

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 569.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 23: De igne

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Fri 29 Jan 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 23: De igne

This riddle is all about starting fires and then putting them out. Regular readers will know that I take every opportunity to quote songs that I like. So, “let me light your fire” with this great riddle.


The riddle opens with the kind of polysemic play that typifies many riddles of the Bern collection. If you were unaware that this was a riddle about fire, you would probably read lines 1-2 as a disturbingly violent story of two “severe” (durus) parents who conceive the child after a “great beating” (verbere… multo). However, since we already know the solution, we recognise that the “hard” (durus) parents that are probably an iron firestriker, i.e. the iron or steel and flint device that was used as a firelighter in many pre-modern societies. The fire is born from the union of steel and flint only after “a great bashing” or “striking” (verbere… multo). Note that the term for “to birth” is fundere (literally “to pour out”), a word that will crop up again and again in these riddles—it appears, sometimes with prefix of pro- or dis-, in seven other riddles (Nos. 8, 19, 20, 27, 28, 29 and 49).

Firesteel
“Reproduction Roman and medieval firetools. Photograph (by Gaius Cornelius) from Wiki Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”


In the immortal words of Bruce Springsteen, “You can't start a fire without a spark.” And similarly, our fire begins its life “in tiny form” (a ventre figura) as a spark. From line 4 onwards, the child’s relationship with his parents is reversed, as he grows up to become a mighty fire who will eventually “soften” its parents. Presumably, this refers to the blistering fire of a smith’s forge —iron melts once it reaches 1538°C. The final line explains that water—which is “life to all” (vitam cunctis)—nevertheless brings about the fire’s death.

I have mentioned the term “tiny epics” in some of my commentaries before. Well, this riddle is certainly worthy of that name. It manages to tell the story of life-cycle of fire in six short, clever lines—from the birth of young spark to the death of an old flame.

Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 8: De ovo
Bern Riddle 19: De cera/De pice
Bern Riddle 20: De melle
Bern Riddle 27: De papiro
Bern Riddle 28: De serico/bombyce
Bern Riddle 29: De speculo
Bern Riddle 49: De pluvia

Bern Riddle 24: De membrana

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 24: De membrana
Original text:
Luctum viva manens toto nam confero mundo
Et defuncta mirum praesto de corpore quaestum.
Vestibus exuta multoque vinculo tensa,
Gladio sic mihi desecta viscera pendent.
Manibus me postquam reges et visu mirantur,
Miliaque porto nullo sub pondere multa.
Translation:
When alive, I give wealth to the whole world
and dead, I provide a wonderful profit from my body.
Stripped of clothes and stretched out by many a bond,
my insides hang out, mown by a sword.
Afterwards, kings marvel at my sight and touch,
and I carry many thousands without any burden.
Click to show riddle solution?
Parchment


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 745.

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 570.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 24: De membrana

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 08 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 24: De membrana

This riddle is about a very special material that preserves the thoughts, memories, and imaginations of people who lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Yes, you guessed it—this riddle is all about parchment!

One of the fascinating things about the Bern Riddles are their interrelatedness—they love to talk about each other! They love using similar phrases and themes to express the properties of very different objects, and this generates unexpected and surprising connections. Today’s riddle continues the theme of life and death from the previous riddle about fire). Its first and fifth lines also the theme of livestock bringing wealth to all, including kings, from the sheep riddle (No. 22). And it contains the same phrase, “stripped of clothes” (vestibus exuta) as we saw with Riddle 5’s table. Fires, sheep, tables—all have something in common with parchment.

Parchment 1
“Goatskin parchment stretched on a wooden frame. Photograph (by Michal Maňas) from Wiki Commons (licence: CC BY 2.5)”


Preparing parchment was a complicated and specialist activity in early medieval Europe. The skin of goats, sheep, and calves was usually treated with a lime solution, before having as much hair removed as possible. It was then stretched on a frame and washed, scraped with a special curved knife, and stretched over several days, before the parchment was thin enough and smooth enough for use.

There are other medieval riddles about parchment, and they all describe the process of its manufacture. The parchment of Tatwine’s Riddle 5 complains that its killer “stripped me of clothing” (exuviis me… spoliavit), before scraping, ruling, and then writing upon it. Exeter Riddle 26 describes the process in a similar way, but it goes into more detail, explaining that feond sum (“a certain enemy”) soaked it and removed its hairs, before scraping it and cutting it to size. Bern Riddle 24, on the other hand, manages to compress this process into two lines (3-4). The hairs are removed from the skin (“stripped of clothes”), which is “stretched our by many a bond” as it hangs on the frame (“my insides hang out”). It has been gladio desecta, literally “cut away by a sword.” However, I have translated this phrase idiomatically as “mown,” under the assumption that it describes the process of scraping as if the parchment were a field being harvested.

Parchment 2
“A riddle about parchment, on parchment. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 611, f. 76v. Photograph from E-codices (licence: CC BY 3.0)”


All three riddles end with the parchment being used for writing and reading. In Tatwine 5, the words become nourishing victum… et medelam (‘food and medicine’). And Exeter 26 closes with a long series of gifts that the book gives to its reader. Unlike the others, Bern does not glorify the spiritual benefits that a book can bring. Instead, its final line describes the paradox of a book carrying many thousands of letters and words that are all effectively weightless. It recalls Riddle 7’s bladder, which carries the apparently weightless air when it is inflated. What an apt ending for a riddle that likes talking to other riddles so much!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

De Hamel, Christopher.Making Medieval Manuscripts. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2018.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Exeter Riddle 26
Bern Riddle 5: De mensa
Bern Riddle 7: De vesica
Bern Riddle 22: De ove
Bern Riddle 23: De igne

Bern Riddle 25: De litteris

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 25: De litteris
Original text:
Nascimur albenti loco sed nigrae sorores;
Tres unito simul nos creant ictu parentes.
Multimoda nobis facies et nomina multa,
Meritumque dispar vox et diversa sonandi.
Numquam sine nostra nos domo detenet ullus,
Nec una responsum dat sine pari roganti.
Translation:
We are born in a white place but we are black sisters;
Three parents create us together with one stroke.
We have various faces and many names,
different values and diverse voices.
Nobody ever detains us outside our home,
nor do any of us reply without a suitable questioner.
Click to show riddle solution?
Letters (of the alphabet)


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 746.

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 571.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 25: De litteris

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 08 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 25: De litteris

This is the second of two riddles about writing technologies. The previous riddle told us about parchment—now it is the turn of the letters that are written on it. Writing was a popular medieval riddle topic, and this riddle employs several common tropes. So, without further ado, letters proceed to the riddle!

It begins by looking back to the parchment of the previous riddle, which here is described as the albentum locum (“white place”) upon which the letters are born as sisters. Groups of sisters are used in two other Bern riddles where the subject is plural and grammatically feminine: flowers (No. 33) and stars (No. 61). Aldhelm also uses the sister motif in his riddle on the alphabet, in which the seventeen sisters are the consonants, and the six “bastard-sisters” (nothas) are the vowels.

De trin
“A copy of Augustine’s On the Trinity, probably written in the nunnery scriptorium of either Chelles Abbey or Jouarre Abbey in Northern France, around 750. Bodleian MS. Laud Misc. 126 f. 2r. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY NC 4.0)”


In the second line, we are told that three parents create the letters. This is part of a long medieval tradition of describing writing as an activity carried out using three fingers—although writers never tell us exactly which digits they have in mind (Rosenfeld, pages 24-5). Riddlers often play with this idea, sometimes combining it with ideas about parentage. In Aldhelm’s riddle on the alphabet (No. 30), the three fingers are “brothers” who create their “sisters” “with an unknown mother” (incerta matre). Similarly, Tatwine’s riddle on the pen (No. 6) mentions three creatures that “bind” (vincere) the pen; another of his riddles, on letters (No. 4) mentions an unnamed mother, which may refer to the pen, hand, or page. And Exeter Book Riddle 51, which is usually solved as pen and fingers, describes “four creatures” (wuhte feower) that “travel together” (samed siþian). We should also mention two riddles in which weapons are operated by three fingers —Aldhelm’s riddle on the slingshot (No. 74) and Eusebius’ riddle on the sword (No. 36). Erika von Erhardt-Siebold (page 74) suggested that the three finger-motif in riddles may have something to do with a line from the Book of Isaiah: “quis appendit tribus digitis molem terrae?” (“who measures the earth’s dust by three fingers?”). However, this connection might seem a bit of a stretch, especially since the motif was so popular outside of riddles (Williams, page 112).

4Evang
“The four Evangelists writing the Gospels, carved on an ivory plaque from Cologne in the mid-11th century. Photograph from the V&A collections (licence: here)”


Aside from the three fingers motif, there are several very interesting parts of this riddle. In line 2, the idea that the finger-parents conceive the child with one “stroke” or “thrust” (ictus) is a great example of the sexualised double entendre that we more often associate with the Exeter Book Riddles. The idea in line 4 that no one can “detain” (detenere) the letters outside their home (sine… domo) seems to be that speech, unlike the written word, is fleeting, and that letters cannot be “held” or “stopped” outside of the page. And the final line explains that the sisters do not reply without a suitable “questioner” (or, in some manuscripts, the “father” (patre))—the idea is that the letters do not “speak” without a reader. Of course, this does not apply to us today, because we have all kinds of text-to-speech readers and audiobooks!

Notes:

Aldhelm of Malmesbury, “Riddle 30” and “Riddle 74.” In Rudolph Ehwald (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, MGH Auctrorum antiquissimorum 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919. Pages 110 and 131. Available here.

von Erhardt-Siebold, Erika. Die lateinischen Rätsel der Angelsachsen: Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte Altenglands. Anglistische Forschungen 61. Heidelberg: Winter, 1925. Pages 73-4, 80-1. Available here.

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

Rosenfeld, Randall. “Tres digiti scribunt: A Typology of Late-Antique and Medieval Pen Grips.” In John Haines and Randall Rosenfeld (eds.), Music and Medieval Manuscripts. Farnham: Ashgate, 2004. Pages 20-58.

Williams, Mary. The Riddles of Tatwine and Eusebius. PhD Thesis, University of Michigan (1974). Pages 80-2, 112, and 206-7.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Exeter Riddle 51
Bern Riddle 24: De membrana
Bern Riddle 33: De viola
Bern Riddle 61: De umbra

Bern Riddle 26: De sinapi

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 26: De sinapi
Original text:
Me si visu quaeras, multo sum parvulo parvus,
Sed nemo maiorum mentis astutia vincit.
Cum feror sublimi parentis humero vectus,
Simplicem ignari me putant esse natura.
Verbere correptus saepe si giro fatigor,
Protinus occultum produco corde saporem.
Translation:
If you look for me, I am teeny-weeny,
but no one larger is more cunning than me.
When I am carried on the shoulder of my lofty parent,
the ignorant think that I am of a simple nature.
If, when captured, I am often beaten and worn down by a circle,
I immediately produce a hidden flavour from my heart.
Click to show riddle solution?
Mustard grain


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 746.

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 572.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 26: De sinapi

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Mon 08 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 26: De sinapi

This riddle is a hymn to a tiny thing with a big taste—the humble mustard grain!

Mustard was a much-loved flavouring in ancient and medieval Italy. It was also used in pre-Conquest England, although the relatively small number of archaeological finds and recipes would suggest that it was not as popular in England as it would become in the High Middle Ages (Banham, p. 39). One English text mentions mustard as a food suitable for those suffering from nausea and refers to ða gelicnesse… ðe senop biþ getemprod to inwisan (“the form which mustard is mixed for flavouring,” Cockayne, page 184). The appearance of mustard in the Bern Riddles sometimes has been taken as evidence of southern European origin (Klein, page 404), but this is not certain.

Mustard
“Brown mustard seed. Photograph (by Dsaikia2015) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY SA 4.0)”


The riddle’s central conceit is that the tiny mustard seed carries a powerful “hidden flavour” (occultum…saporem) in such a small body. Line 1 uses an irregular comparative phrase, multo sum parvulo parvus, which I have translated idiomatically as “teeny-weeny.” The second line puns on the word astutus (“cunning”) and acutus (“sharp”), and I wonder whether the original was ‘no one larger is sharper than me,’ since mustard is not exactly known for its cunning.

Line 3 might give you déjà vu (or should that be Dijon vu?) since, for the second riddle in a row, we are invited to guess the riddle subject’s parentage. The “lofty parent” (sublimis parens) is the mustard plant, which can grow to head height in its flowering and ripening stages.

The final two lines explain the preparation and consumption of the mustard seed. The torture of line 5 might sound violent, but it refers either to the mustard’s preparation with a mortar and pestle, or to its chewing. Line 6 leaves us with an idea that is very much in keeping with the spirit of medieval riddling—a hidden thing, which requires hard work to uncover, but which leaves you with a pleasant taste. Much like a riddle, actually!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Banham, Debby. Food and Drink in Anglo-Saxon England. Cheltenham: Tempus, 2004.

Cockayne, Oswald (ed.). Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Volume 2. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865. Page 184. Available here.

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



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Related Posts:
Bern Riddle 25: De litteris

Bern Riddle 27: De papiro

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020
Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 27: De papiro
Original text:
Amnibus delector molli sub cespite cretus
Et producta levi natus columna viresco.
Vestibus sub meis non queo cernere solem;
Aliena tectus possum producere lumen.
Filius profundi dum fior lucis amicus,
Sic quae vitam dedit mater, et lumina tollit.
Translation:
Grown up in soft grasses, streams make me happy,
And once born, I grow as a fast, verdant stem.
Under my clothing, I cannot see the sun;
covered by another, I can give out a light.
When I, a son of the depths, am turned into a friend of light,
my mother, who gave life, takes away the light.
Click to show riddle solution?
Papyrus plant


Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 746.

Line 1 follows the preferred reading in Fr. Glorie, ed., Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), page 573.



Tags: latin  Bern Riddles 

Commentary for Bern Riddle 27: De papiro

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021
Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 27: De papiro

This riddle about the papyrus plant begins with a charming story of a riverside childhood—all soft grasses and happy streams! This is quite different to some of the violent and bizarre birth stories that we have heard. That is, at least until the apparently macabre twist at the end!

papyrus
“Papyrus plants. Photograph (by Jo Jan) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY 3.0)”


Papyrus was used since ancient times as a source of paper, but it was best known in early medieval Europe as a wick for lamps and candles. For example, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, writing in the seventh century, mentions papyrus wicks being used in an oil lamp (De virginitate, page 92). Its associations with fire were such that, in his early seventh century Etymologies, Isidore of Seville incorrectly explained the etymology of papyrus as derived from the Greek πυρ (“fire”) (Isidore, page 355).

As with many other plant riddles, it describes the riddle subject both in terms of its botany and its use to humans. The first three lines describe the fast-growing papyrus stem, which shoots up in the summer months. The long, spidery leaves are the “clothing” (vestes), which produce such shade that the rest of the plant cannot “see the sun” (cernere solem).

Papyrus2
“More papyrus plants. Photograph (by Heike Hoffmann) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY SA 2.0)”


The twist in Line 4 and 5 is that the plant, which cannot see the light, also “gives out a light” (producere lumen) when covered by something else. The papyrus pith used for wick-making (and paper-making too) was sliced from the shady bottom of the plant. Once prepared as a wick, it “gives out a light” when covered in wax or enclosed in an oil lamp (see Riddles 2 and 14). Thus, it can be called both a filius profundi (“son of the depths”) and a lucis amicus (“friend of light”).

The final line introduces a further twist—the riddle-creature’s mother, who was responsible for his idyllic childhood, now “takes away the light” (lumina tollit), which sounds very much like she kills him. But, of course, the mother is water, which gives life to the plant and extinguishes the lighted wick. So, happily, it is not quite as sad an ending as it sounds!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Aldhelm, The Prose De virginitate. In Michael Lapidge and Michael Herren (eds. and trans.), Aldhelm: The Prose Works. Ipswich: D.S. Brewer, 1979. Pages 59-135.

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 

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