RIDDLE POSTS BY TAG: 'LATIN'

Aldhelm Riddle 21: Lima

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Sat 12 Mar 2022
Original text:

Corpore sulcato nec non ferrugine glauca
Sum formata fricans rimis informe metallum.
Auri materias massasque polire sueta
Piano superficiem constans asperrima rerum;
Garrio voce carens rauco cum murmure stridens.

Translation:

With a grooved body and an iron shine 
I am made for grinding unformed metal with my furrows.
Accustomed to polishing golden materials and masses, 
I even out the surface of things while remaining very rough;
Lacking in voice, I harshly utter a hoarse whisper. 

Click to show riddle solution?
File


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 21: Talpa

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Caeca mihi facies atris obscura tenebris;
Nox est ipse dies nec sol mihi cernitur ullus;
Malo tegi terra: sic me quoque nemo videbit.

Translation:

My face is blind, hidden in dark shadows;
Night is itself day, nor is any sun perceived by me;
I like to be covered by earth: and this way no one will see me.

Click to show riddle solution?
Mole


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 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 

Eusebius Riddle 22: De sermone

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Pervolo tam cito, discurrens per aethera missus.
Qui me mittit habet; aditurus sicubi mittor.
Ensibus igne secures sic penetrabo reclusa.
Non videor volitans, oculorum aspectibus adstans.

Translation:

I fly very quickly, sent running through the air.
Whoever sends me has me; I will go wherever I am sent.
Safe from swords and fire, I will thus penetrate shut-up places.
Flying I am not seen, although I stand near eyes’ glances.

Click to show riddle solution?
On speech


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Riddle 22: De Adam

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Regem me quondam gnari et dominum vocitabant 
Sceptri dum solus tunc regmen in orbe tenebam—
Pro dolor, heu, socia virtute redactus inermem.
Hostilis, subito, circum me copia cinxit, 
Ac deinceps miserum servis servire coegit.

Translation:

Wise men once called me king and lord,
While I was alone holding then the sceptre’s rule in the world—
O woe, alas, reduced by my kindred character.
Suddenly, enemy troops surrounded me, defenceless,
And thereafter compelled me, miserable, to serve slaves.

Click to show riddle solution?
On Adam


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 22: Acalantida

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Sat 12 Mar 2022
Original text:

Vox mea diversis variatur pulcra figuris,
Raucisonis numquam modulabor carmina rostris; 
Spurca colore tamen, sed non sum spreta canendo:
Sic non cesso canens fato terrente futuro;
Nam me bruma fugat, sed mox aestate redibo.

Translation:

My beautiful voice is transformed through different arrangements,
I shall never sing my songs with a hoarse-sounding beak;
Though dusky in colour, I am not contemptible while singing:
Thus I do not stop singing in fear of a future fate:
For winter drives me out, but I will return immediately in summer.

Click to show riddle solution?
Nightingale


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 22: Formica

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Provida sum vitae, duro non pigra labore,
Ipsa ferens umeris securae praemia brumae.
Nec gero magna simul, sed congero multa vicissim.

Translation:

I am prudent in my life, not lazy when it comes to hard work,
Bearing on my own shoulders foodstuffs for a safe winter.
Nor do I carry a lot all at once, but I collect a lot little by little.

Click to show riddle solution?
Ant


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 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 

Eusebius Riddle 23: De equore

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Motor, curro, fero velox, nec desero sedem.
Tenue vagumque manens, tam gravia pondera porto.
Nix neque me tegit, aut grando permit, aut gelu vincit,
De super aut multis sternor, sed pluribus intus.

Translation:

I am moved; I run; swift, I go, but I do not leave my home. 
I remain thin and unfixed, but I carry heavy loads.
Snow does not cover me, nor does hail does afflict me, nor does frost conquer me,
Nor am I calmed by many from above, but by more from within.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the sea


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Riddle 23: De trina morte

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Saucio loetiferis omnes cum morsibus intus,
Nam rabidi trino capitis sub dente perimo.
Sed multi evadunt binorum vulnera dentum,
Tertius est nullus quem devitare licebit,
Sed binorum alter mordet quemcumque perimit.

Translation:

I wound everyone inside with my deadly bites,
For I kill by way of the three teeth in my savage head.
Although many evade the wounds of two teeth,
There is a third which no one will be able to flee,
But one of the two destroys whomever it kills.

Click to show riddle solution?
On threefold death


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 23: Trutina

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Sat 12 Mar 2022
Original text:

Kos geminas olim genuit natura sorores,
Quas iugiter rectae legis censura gubernat;
Temnere personas et ius servare solemus.
Felix in terra fieret mortalibus aevum,
Iustitiae normam si servent more sororum.

Translation:

Long ago, nature made us, twin sisters,
Whom the observation of just law eternally governs;
We are accustomed to rejecting individuals and protecting justice.
Happy would that age be for mortals on earth
If they would honour the norm of justice as we sisters do.

Click to show riddle solution?
Pair of scales


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 23: Musca

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Improba sum, fateor: quid enim gula turpe veretur?
Frigora vitabam, quae nunc aestate revertor;
Sed cito submoveor falso conterrita vento.

Translation:

I am shameless, I admit: for what filth does my throat actually fear?
I avoided the cold and am now returned with the summer;
But I am quickly driven away, terrified of the false wind.

Click to show riddle solution?
Fly


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 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 

Eusebius Riddle 24: De morte et vita

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Binae nos sumus: una sed est flens, mesta tenebris;
Altera perseverat, tam lucida laetaque semper.
Cum me plus homines instant conquerere tristem,
Illa laetifica pereunt quae lumine ridet.

Translation:

We are two: but one is grieving, sorrowful in the shadows;
The other persists, very bright and forever joyful.
Although men devote themselves more to seeking me, the melancholy one,
They love to death that cheerful one who laughs in the light.

Click to show riddle solution?
On death and life


Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Riddle 24: De humilitate

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Egregius vere nullus sine me est neque felix.
Amplector cunctos quorum me corda requirunt. 
Qui absque meo graditur comitatu morte peribit,
Et qui me gestat sospes sine fine manebit.
Inferior terris et caelis altior exsto.

Translation:

No one is truly excellent or happy without me.
I embrace all whose hearts seek me.
He who goes without my companionship will be destroyed by death,
And he who carries me will remain safe without end.
I am lower than the earths and higher than the heavens.

Click to show riddle solution?
On humility


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 24: Dracontia

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Sat 12 Mar 2022
Original text:

Me caput horrentis fertur genuisse draconis;
Augeo purpureis gemmarum lumina fucis,
Sed mihi non dabitur rigida virtute potestas,
Si prius occumbat squamoso corpore natrix,
Quam summo spolier capitis de vertice rubra.

Translation:

The head of a horrible dragon is reported to have produced me.
I increase the shine of gems with my crimson colour, 
But the power of great strength will not be given to me
If the snake with a scaly body should die
Before I am plundered, red, from the very top of its head.

Click to show riddle solution?
Dragon-stone


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 24: Curculio

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022
Original text:

Non bonus agricolis, non frugibus utilis hospes,
Non magnus forma, non recto nomine dictus
Non gratus Cereri, non parvam sumo saginam.

Translation:

Not good to farmers nor a useful guest to crops,
Not great in size nor called by my true name,
Not pleasing to Ceres, I acquire not a little nourishment.

Click to show riddle solution?
Weevil


Notes:

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

If you're researching/studying this collection, you should also consult this excellent new edition: T. J. Leary, ed. Symphosius: The Aenigmata, An Introduction, Text and Commentary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Textual differences in that edition include:

  • Title: Curculio > gurgulio (but maintaing the translation "weevil")
  • line 3: non parvam sumo saginam > sed multa vivo sagina


Tags: riddles  solutions  latin  symphosius 

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 

Eusebius Riddle 25: De corde

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021
Original text:

Unus inest homo qui tantum in me clausa videbit,
Quique suis me non oculis conspexerat umquam.
Non sum magna domus, cum pervenit accola magnus.
Nulla est ianua, cum tamen omnis me simul implent. (1)

Translation:

There is one man (2) alone who will see such closed-off parts in me,
And who never observed me with his eyes.
I am not a great house, although a great inhabitant approaches.
There is no door, yet all fill me at the same time.

Click to show riddle solution?
On the heart


Notes:

(1) In the manuscript, CUL Gg.5.35, the riddle is titled De animo (On the soul). 
(2) The “one man” is Jesus.
 



Tags: riddles  latin  Eusebius 

Tatwine Riddle 25: De superbia

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022
Original text:

Eximio quondam sedis sum nata parente,
Quem diris, vinctum, dampnis regna spoliavi.
Septenas pariter mihi deservire parabam
Reginas, comitum septas cum prole maligna.
Parvus ast, obiens me, iam prostraverat armis.

Translation:

Once I was born from a remarkable parent in his habitat,
Whom, bound, I despoiled of his kingdoms with fearful damages.
Likewise, I was preparing to devote myself to seven
Queens, surrounded with the evil offspring of their companions.
But a little one, meeting me, now overthrew me with weapons.

Click to show riddle solution?
On pride


Tags: riddles  latin  Tatwine 

Aldhelm Riddle 25: Magnes ferrifer

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Sat 12 Mar 2022
Original text:

Vis mihi naturae dedit, immo creator Olimpi,
Id, quo cuncta carent veteris miracula mundi.
Frigida nam chalibis suspendo metalla per auras:
Vi quadam superans sic ferrea fata revinco;
Mox adamante Cypri praesente potentia fraudor.

Translation:

The strength of nature, or rather the creator of heaven, gave to me
That which is lacking in all the miracles of the old world. 
For I raise cold steely metals through the air:
Conquering thus by means of this specific strength, I overcome iron fates again;
In the presence of Cyprian adamant, I am immediately defrauded of my power.

Click to show riddle solution?
Iron-attracting Magnet


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