Riddle Ages

Commentary for Bern Riddle 29: De speculo

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 29: De speculo

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the best riddle-creature of them all?




The riddle is centred around the idea of a mirror as simultaneously a liar and a truth-teller. Its images are a pale, dead reflection of reality—vanas figuras (“empty forms”) and exiguos foetos (“poor children”). The idea that a mirror image is a deficient copy of reality is reminiscent of a whole host of Neo-Platonic and Christian ideas about the world. I immediately think of St Paul’s famous remarks in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that Videmus nunc per speculum et in aenigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem (“We now see through a mirror darkly [literally “in a riddle”], but then [we will see] face-to-face”). Largely due to Paul’s words, several important Christian philosophers and theologians talked about mirrors in their work. For example, Augustine of Hippo, writing at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century, frequently makes use of Paul’s allegory, particularly in On the Trinity, to explain how humans can only see the image of God imperfectly and indirectly, as if through a mirror (Augustine, pages 27, 47, 54, 134, 144 et al.).

“Late 4th century Etruscan bronze mirror with an ivory handle. The engraving is a depiction of the goddesses Athena and several Etruscan mythological figures. Photograph (by The Metropolitan Museum of Art) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC0 1.0BY)”



At the same time, the mirror is always faithful to reality—it produces proprios vultus ("the very images”) and formas… de vero (“images based on the truth”). Thus, the riddle manages to capture simultaneously the observed reality about mirrors and the philosophical-theological discourse that is associated with them. It contains several other apparent paradoxes too. The person who stands before the mirror is a praelucens…umbra (“shadow shining”) since they both produce a mirror image and cast a shadow. And the mirror is a mother who bears no living children, since the images that she produces are “unreal” or “dead.” The father is not mentioned. Perhaps he is intended to be the person who “desires” (petens) and “wishes” (volens) the mirror to “give birth to” their own image. Certainly, framing the relationship between viewer and mirror as one of male desire and female passivity is an interesting one, and very different to some conventional association of mirrors with vain, usually female, viewers. 
I feel that there is a lot more to be said about this riddle, but it will have to wait until another day. So, I will end by saying something that I say a lot—the Bern Riddles often surprise us with their depth and complexity. This short riddle manages to reflect on some big topics—the nature of reality and self-desire.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Augustine, On The Trinity, Books 8-15. Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, translated by Stephen McKenna. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Fleteren, Frederick van. “Per Speculum et in Aenigmate: 1 Corinthians 13:12 in Augustine and Anselm.”Annali di studi religiosi, Vol. 4 (2003). Pages 559-565.

Frelick, Nancy M. (editor). The Mirror in Medieval and Early Modern Culture: Specular Reflections. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016. (Although this edited book focuses on the depictions of mirrors in late medieval and early modern texts, many of the articles also relate to much earlier works.)

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

Original text:

Nullo firmo loco manens consistere possum

Et vagando vivens nolo conspicere quemquam.

Vita mihi mors est, mortem pro vita requiro

Et volventi domo semper amica delector.

Numquam ego lecto volo iacere tepenti,

Sed vitale mihi torum sub frigora condo.

Translation:

I cannot stay still in a firm place,

and living as a wanderer, I do not want to see anyone.

Life is death for me, and I need death for life,

and my friendly, rolling home always delights me.

I never want to lie in a warm bed,

but I build myself a life-bed within the cold.

Click to show riddle solution?

Fish

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 747.

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 576.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Eusebius Riddle 30: De atramentorio

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

Armorum fueram vice meque tenebat in armis

Fortis, et armigeri gestabar vertice tauri.

Vas tamen intus habens sum nunc intestina amara

Viscera, sed ructans bonus ibit nitor odoris.

Translation:

I was in the weapons’ role, and a strong one held me

In battle, and I was carried on the head of an armed bull.

I am now a vessel, however, holding bitter entrails and viscera 

Inside, but when I belch, good and elegant perfume will issue.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the inkhorn

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Tatwine Riddle 30: De ense et vagina

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Armigeri dura cordis compagine fingor,

Cuius et hirsuti extat circumstantia pepli,

Pangitur et secto cunctum de robore culmen

Pellibus exterius strictim; quae tegmina tute

Offensam diris defendunt imbribus aulam.

Translation:

I am shaped by the hard framework of a warlike heart,

which is encircled in a hairy cloak,

And whose whole top, cut from oak, is fastened 

Tightly on the outside by skins; these coverings safely

Defend the home from damage by dreadful rains.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the sword and sheath

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Aldhelm Riddle 30: Elementum

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Nos decem et septem genitae sine voce sorores

Sex alias nothas non dicimus annumerandas.

Nascimur ex ferro rursus ferro moribundae

Necnon et volucris penna volitantis ad aethram;

Terni nos fratres incerta matre crearunt.

Qui cupit instanter sitiens audire docentes,

Tum cito prompta damus rogitanti verba silenter.

Translation:

We, ten and seven sisters, born without a voice, 

Say that the six other illegitimates are not to be included. 

We are born of iron, will also die by iron, 

Or indeed by the feather of a bird flying through the sky.

Three brothers created us from an unknown mother.

Whoever in their thirst earnestly wishes to hear our teachings,

We quickly, silently give prepared words, then, to the one asking.

Click to show riddle solution?

Alphabet

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 30: Peduculus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Est nova nostrarum cunctis captura ferarum,

Ut, si quid capias, id tu tibi ferre recuses

Et, quod non capias, tecum tamen ipse reportes.

Translation:

There is, for everyone, a strange prey of our wild animals,

Which, if you should catch it, you will decline to bring it to you

And, if you should not catch it, it may yet bring itself back with you.

Click to show riddle solution?

Louse

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:

Ordering: Leary orders Riddles 29-31 as: phoenix, ericius, peduculus, while also acknowledging the possibility of the order here

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

Fish are not only a favourite food of grizzly bears and ravenous crocodiles, but a favourite “food” of cunning riddlers too. 
Long-time followers of The Riddle Ages will know all about Exeter Riddle 81 (“Fish and River”), which is based on a similar riddle, Symphosius’ Riddle 12.’ Another English writer, Alcuin of York also borrowed Symphosius’ fish riddle for his eclectic “wisdom” work, Peppin’s Disputation, at the turn of the 9th century. Fish also feature in Aldhelm’s Riddle 81 and Eusebius’ Riddle 40, as well as several ancient Greek riddles. It is not exactly relevant to today’s riddle, but I feel obliged to share my all-time favourite fish-riddle, an ancient Greek one attributed to Clearchus of Soli. It asks, “Which fish or variety of fish is the most delicious or the most precisely in season, and then which one is particularly good eating after Arcturus rises, or the Pleiades, or the Dog-Star?” There is no answer, except perhaps laughter. The joke is that the catching of fish, unlike crops, are not linked to the seasons, but the wealthy, urbane riddler does not understand this. Anyway, as we will see, the Bern fish riddle is a very intertextual one—it contains a lot of tropes and references to other Bern riddles. See how many you can find!

“Fish from an early 13th century bestiary from Peterborough, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511, Folio 86r. Photograph from Digital Bodleian (licence: CC BY-NC 4.0)




The opening line takes the ‘creature who likes firm places’ trope from Riddle 4’s horse-bench and Riddle 10’s ladder. In this case, the fish subject cannot live in a ‘firm place’ (firmo loco). I have translated manens consistere simply as “dwell” for simplicity’s sake, but the sense is perhaps closer to the more prolix “remaining in firm places, I cannot endure.”
Many of the Bern riddles are about life or death, and several of them describe situations those where water can be a source of life. For example, water is the mother of salt (Riddle 4), papyrus (Riddle 27), sponge (Riddle 32) and ice (Riddle 38). ‘In Riddle 27, water is also the destroyer of fire. And in Riddle 23, water is both “life for all” (vitam cunctis) and death for fire. Here, the idea is rearranged, so that air is life and water is death for everyone except our aquatic friends.
The part of this riddle I struggle to make sense of are the references to the “warm bed” (lectus tepens) and “life bed within the cold” (vitalis torus sub frigora). After all, fish do not lie on beds or couches! Are these lines meant literally or figuratively, or both? Perhaps the “life bed” refers to the sea itself, or maybe the sandy floor where bottom-dwelling fish dwell. Or perhaps the idea is to depict the fish as if it were a long-suffering seafarer, who has rejected the comforts of warm beds on land? Answers on a postcard please!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Alcuin of York, Disputatio regalis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino scholastico. In Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi. Edited by L. W. Daly & W. Suchier. Champaign: The University of Illinois Press, 1939. Page 98.

Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Learned Banqueter, Volume V. Loeb Classical Library 274. Edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. Page 575. (The riddle is attributed to Clearchus of Soli.)

Symphosius, “Aenigma 12: Flumen et piscis” In Symphosius: The Aenigmata: An Introduction, Text and Commentary. Edited by T. J. Leary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, Page 41.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

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Bern Riddle 30: De pisce

Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

Original text:

Ore mihi nulla petenti pocula dantur,

Ebrius nec ullum reddo perinde fluorem.

Versa mihi datur vice bibendi facultas

Et vacuo ventri potus ab ima defertur.

Pollice depresso conceptas denego limphas

Et sublato rursum diffusos confero nimbos.

Translation:

No drinks are given to me when my mouth seeks them,

nor, when full of drink, do I give any drink in return.

At other times, I am given the ability to drink,

and a drink is given from the depths to the empty belly.

When a thumb is lowered, I refuse the contained liquids,

and when raised again, I bring rain-showers.

Click to show riddle solution?

Siphon

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 748.

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 577.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Eusebius Riddle 31: De caera

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

Aequalem facie, scindit me vomer acutus,

At sulcata manens semper sum seminis expers.

Scissa premor post haec, sed sum speciosior inde.

Nunc ego verba tenens; nunc saepe repello tenebras.

Translation:

A sharp plough cuts me, smooth of face,

But although I remain grooved, I always lack seed. 

Cut, I am pressed afterwards, but I am then more beautiful. 

Now I hold words; now often I repel the darkness.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the wax tablet

Tags: riddles latin Eusebius

Tatwine Riddle 31: De scintilla

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Testor quod crevi, rarus mihi credere sed vult,

Nam nasci, gelido natum de viscere matris

Vere quae numquam sensit spiramina vitae,

Ipsa tamen mansit vivens in ventre sepultus.

Translation:

I testify how I came to be, but rare is he who wishes to believe me, 

For I was born, the child of the icy inside of my mother

Who never truly felt the breaths of life, 

Yet I remained alive, buried in that belly.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the spark

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Aldhelm Riddle 31: Ciconia

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Candida forma nitens necnon et furva nigrescens

Est mihi, dum varia componor imagine pennae;

Voce carens tremula nam faxo crepacula rostro.

Quamvis squamigeros discerpam dira colobros,

Non mea letiferis turgescunt membra venenis;

Sic teneres pullos prolemque nutrire suesco

Carne venenata tetroque cruore draconum.

Translation:

I have a shining white appearance and also one that

Dims to dark, since I am composed of the feather’s varied image;

I lack a quavering voice, for I will make rattles with my beak.

Although I, dreadful, will mangle scaly snakes,

My limbs will not swell with fatal venom;

Thus am I used to feeding young chickens and offspring

With the poisoned flesh and the foul blood of snakes.

Click to show riddle solution?

Stork

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 31: Phoenix

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Vita mihi mors est; morior si coepero nasci.

Sed prius est fatum leti quam lucis origo.

Sic solus Manes ipsos mihi dico parentes.

Translation:

My life is death; if I die I begin to be born.

But before the fate of death is the beginning of light.

Thus I alone call the Manes themselves my parents.

Click to show riddle solution?

Phoenix

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:

Ordering: Leary orders Riddles 29-31 as: phoenix, ericius, peduculus, while also acknowledging the possibility of the order here

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 31: De nympha

The title of this riddle (De nympha) can mean several things. It can mean a young woman. It can mean one of the Nymphae, or sea nymphs, of classical mythology. It can mean the pupa of an insect. And it can mean water of some kind, for example, a body of water or a spring. I think you would agree that only the last of these can apply to this riddle! 
Mercedes Salvador-Bello has argued that this riddle is probably about a kind of water container (Salvador-Bello, page 262, 466). I think that the solution of “siphon,” as favoured by several editors (see Glorie, page 577), is the most likely one. There is a problem, however—whereas the word nympha is grammatically feminine, the subject of the riddle is grammatically masculine. However, the word sipho (“siphon”) is masculine—lending credence to the idea that the title was changed at some point. 

“A siphon used in the beer-brewing process. Photograph (by KVDP) from Wikimedia Commons (public domain)”



Siphons work using “physics magic” (actually a combination of atmospheric pressure and electrostatic force) to draw a liquid from a lower point to a higher one. The ancient Romans applied this on a massive scale with aqueducts, but the riddle is describing something much smaller—perhaps a water fountain or tap of some kind, or maybe a device for transporting wine from one container to another. 
The first line plays upon the idea that the siphon has an insatiable thirst, and yet its lips never touch a cup. This leads into the image of a drunk who refuses to pay his way, playing upon the word ebrius (line 2), which can mean both “drunk” and “full.” This is contrasted with those occasions (lines 3-4) when its “belly” (venter) is “empty” (vacuus), during which it has “the ability to drink” (bibendi facultas). The idea seems to be that the empty vessel into which the liquid is decanted will siphon or “drink” it, whereas the full vessel will not. 
The final two lines explain that the riddle-creature “refuses” or “rejects” (denegare) liquids when a thumb is lowered, but that its raising brings “rain-showers” (diffusos… nimbos). This could conceivably refer to the act of drinking from a cup or pouring out an amphora, but it seems more likely that this refers to the regulating of the siphon system using a thumb. Perhaps this also suggests a medieval version of the pollice verso, the thumbs up or down signal used by spectators of ancient Roman gladiators.
The general theme to this riddle is giving and receiving drinks. I don’t think that it is a bad riddle, but I wonder whether it has as much depth as many other Bern Riddles do. On the other hand, it might be that I haven’t managed to tap into its true meaning.

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Fr. Glorie, (ed.). Variae collectiones aenigmatum Merovingicae aetatis. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 133A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1968. Page 577.

Salvador-Bello, Mercedes. Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata. Morgantown, West Virginia University Press, 2015.

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Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

Original text:

Dissimilem sibi dat mihi mater figuram;

Caro nulla mihi, sed viscera cava latebris.

Sumere nil possum, si non absorbuero matrem,

Et quae me concepit, hanc ego genero postquam.

Manu capta levis, gravis sum manu dimissa,

Et quem sumpsi libens, mox cogor reddere sumptum.

Translation:

My mother gives me a face unlike hers;

I have no flesh, but only hollow insides with hidden places.

I cannot grasp anything if I have not swallowed my mother,

and afterwards I birth the woman who conceived me.

Light, I am grasped by the hand. Heavy, I am released by the hand.

And I am soon forced to return that which I willingly took.

Click to show riddle solution?

Sponge

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 748.

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 578.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Eusebius Riddle 32: De membrano

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

Antea per nos vox resonabat verba nequaquam.

Distincta sine nunc voce edere verba solemus.

Candida sed cum arva, lustramur milibus atris.

Viva nihil loquimur; responsum mortua famur.

Translation:

Formerly a voice did not utter words through us at all.

Now it is our custom to declare words without articulated voice.

Though white fields, we are traversed by innumerable black things.

Alive, we say nothing; dead, we speak our response.

Click to show riddle solution?

On parchment

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Tatwine Riddle 32: De sagitta

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Armigeros inter Martis, me bella subire

Obvia fata iuvant et corpora sternere leto,

Insidiasque gregi cautas inferre ferino,

Nunc iuvenum laetos inter discurrere caetus.

Translation:

Among Mars’ soldiers, the fates are ready to help

Me to wage war and scatter bodies in death,

And to set prudent plots against the wild animal,

And now to run around among the cheerful groups of youths.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the arrow

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Aldhelm Riddle 32: Pugillares

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Melligeris apibus mea prima processit origo,

Sed pars exterior crescebat cetera silvis;

Calciamenta mihi tradebant tergora dura.

Nunc ferri stimulus faciem proscindit amoenam

Flexibus et sulcos obliquat adinstar aratri,

Sed semen segiti de caelo ducitur almum,

Quod largos generat millena fruge maniplos.

Heu! tam sancta seges diris extinguitur armis.

Translation:

My first origin came from honeybees, 

But my other, outer part grew in the forest;

Stiff skins gave me shoes.

Now the iron stylus cuts through my lovely face,

With its turnings and twists cuts grooves like a plough,

But the crop’s holy seed is brought from heaven, 

And it propagates bountiful bundles with its thousand-strong fruit.

Alas! Such a holy harvest is killed by fearful arms.

Click to show riddle solution?

Writing Tablets

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 32: Taurus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Moechus eram regis, sed lignea membra sequebar.

Et Cilicum mons sum, sed mons sum nomine solo.

Et vehor in caelis et in ipsis ambulo terris.

Translation:

I was an adulterer of royalty, but I followed wooden limbs.

And I am a Cilician mountain, but I am a mountain only in name.

And I ride in the heavens and walk on the earth itself.

Click to show riddle solution?

Bull

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:

line 2: mons sum > non sum

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Commentary for Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 32: De spongia

It is time to absorb the wisdom of this great riddle, which is all about a talking sponge and her strange, strange existence. The riddle continues the theme of watery things from the previous riddles on the fish and the siphon. It owes much to an earlier riddle by Symphosius (No. 63), an unknown writer who wrote 100 influential riddles, probably at some point between the third and fifth centuries, and likely in Roman North Africa—but it also adds a typically unconventional Bern riddle take on family relations (see Klein, page 406-7).

“A sponge. Photograph (by Johan) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”



The first line immediately draws our interest: who is the mother whose face is so unlike her daughter? A few lines later, the mother is swallowed and then born by her child. In case you didn’t get it already, the mother is the grammatically feminine aqua (“water”), who is soaked up and then squeezed out. Water is also described as a mother in several other riddles, which means that the sponge is the sister of salt (Riddle 4), papyrus (Riddle 27), and ice (Riddle 38). Don’t you just love the strange family relations of the Bern Riddles!
Line 2 describes the sponge’s fleshless viscera (“insides,” “entrails”). Riddles are often interested in the hidden interior world of things. Usually when this word is used in the Bern Riddles, it refers to a hidden thing of some kind, for example, a ship’s cargo (Riddle 11), or a fire-striker’s potential for fire (Riddle 23). Here, rather than describing a thing, it describes a nothing, i.e. the pores, or “hollow insides” (cava viscera), that the sponge uses to circulate water through its body when living. Symphosius includes a similar idea in his riddle—the sponge is patulis diffusa cavernis (“spread out with gaping caverns”) and intus lympha latet (“water hides within”).
Line 5 takes the idea of theft or capture and turns it on its head, as the sponge is “light” (levis) when it is “seized” (manu capta), but it is “heavy” (gravis) when “released” (manu dismissa). Again, this owes something to Symphosius’ riddle, which reads Ipsa gravis non sum, sed aquae mihi pondus inhaeret (“I am not heavy myself, but the weight of water sticks inside me.”). But the addition of the upturned capture/theft element is the Bern riddler’s own invention. The final line then subverts this second time, when the poor sponge is compelled to return its takings. What a brilliant twist to end the riddle on!

 “A reminder that talking sponges are not unique to the Middle Ages.”

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Symphosius, “Aenigma 63: Spongia” In Symphosius: The Aenigmata: An Introduction, Text and Commentary. Edited by T. J. Leary. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Page 47.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

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Bern Riddle 4: De scamno
Bern Riddle 27: De papiro
Bern Riddle 38: De glacie

Bern Riddle 33: De viola

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Sat 28 Nov 2020

Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Bern Riddle 33: De viola

Original text:

Parvula dum nascor, minor effecta senesco

Et cunctas praecedo maiori veste sorores.

Extremos ad brumae me prima confero menses

Et amoena cunctis verni iam tempora monstro.

Me reddet inlustrem parvo de corpore spiritus,

Et viam quaerendi docet, qui nulli videtur.

Translation:

Small when I am born, I become smaller when I grow old,

and I come before all my better dressed sisters.

I am first to change in the last months of winter,

and I reveal the beautiful time of spring to everyone.

The breath from my small body will restore my shine,

and it is seen by no one, but it shows the way to those who ask.

Click to show riddle solution?

Violet

Notes:

This edition is based on Karl Strecker, ed., Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, Vol. 4.2 (Berlin, MGH/Weidmann, 1923), page 748.

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 579.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

Eusebius Riddle 33: De scaetha

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021

Original text:

In me multigena sapientia constat habunde,

Nec tamen illud scire, quid est sapientia, possum.

Cum prudentia forte meo processerit ore,

Tunc quod ab internis venit intus habere nequibo.

Translation:

In me wisdom of many kinds stands plentifully,

And yet I cannot know what wisdom is.

If prudence will proceed from my mouth by chance,

I will then be unable to keep inside that which comes from within.

Click to show riddle solution?

On the book-satchel

Notes:

Note: The solution given is a rare Latin word (also spelled scetha), which may be translated as “bookcase, or “book-wallet.” The sense seems to be “container of books.”

Tags: riddles latin Eusebius

Tatwine Riddle 33: De igne

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Wed 05 Jan 2022

Original text:

Testatur simplex triplicem natura figuram

Esse meam, haut mortales qua sine vivere possunt.

Multiplici quibus, en, bona munere grata ministro,

Tristitia non numquam tamen; sum haut exorsus ab illis.

Translation:

My single condition is witness to my threefold 

Form, without which mortals are scarcely able to live.   

Indeed, through numerous gifts I provide them with pleasing goods,

Though not never sadness; I was by no means begun by mortals.

Click to show riddle solution?

On fire

Tags: riddles latin Tatwine

Symphosius Riddle 33: Lupus

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Fri 01 Jul 2022

Original text:

Dentibus insanis ego sum, qui vinco bidentes,

Sanguineas praedas quaerens victusque cruentos;

Multaque cum rabie vocem quoque tollere possum.

Translation:

With raving teeth, I am he who overcomes two-toothed lambs,

Seeking bloody prey and bloody provision;

And with great rage I am also able to destroy the voice.

Click to show riddle solution?

Wolf

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:

line 1: vinco > trunco
line 3: rabie > rapiam

Tags: riddles solutions latin symphosius

Aldhelm Riddle 33: Lorica

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Tue 15 Mar 2022

Original text:

Roscida me genuit gelido de viscere tellus;

Non sum setigero lanarum vellere facta,

Licia nulla trahunt nec garrula fila resultant

Nec crocea Seres texunt lanugine vermes

Nec radiis carpor duro nec pectine pulsor;

Et tamen en vestis vulgi sermone vocabor.

Spicula non vereor longis exempta faretris.

Translation:

The dewy earth birthed me from frozen innards;

I am not made from the bristly sheep’s wool,

No threads are drawn nor do noisy strings thrum, 

Nor do Chinese silk-worms weave me from golden plant-down, 

I am not plucked from the spinning wheel nor struck by the hard carding comb;

And yet, behold, I am called “clothing” in the vulgar tongue.

I do not fear sharp weapons taken out of long quivers.

Click to show riddle solution?

Mail-coat (armour)

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

Commentary for Bern Riddle 33: De viola

NEVILLEMOGFORD

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2021

Matching Riddle: Bern Riddle 33: De viola

Sometimes, riddles can tell the story of an entire lifetime in just a few lines—I call them tiny epics in several of my commentaries (for Riddles 12, 13, 24). Well, this riddle on the violet is another example of a tiny epic. It is also the first of four riddles on flowers.
The opening line explains that the plant grows smaller as it grows old. This seems to be referring to the wilting of the flower, although it may also reflect some other botanical detail, such as their low-growing nature. Sadly, it does not have anything to do with the phrase “shrinking violet,” which was not coined until the turn of the 20th century. 

“Violets. Photograph (by Remont) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 4.0)”



Line 2 explains that the violet comes before “all the better-dressed sisters” (cunctas… maiori veste sorores), and this theme is continued into lines 3 and 4. On the one hand, the riddle reflects botanical reality— violets typically flower in late winter and early spring, which is much earlier than most plants. On the other, it also borrows from an established literary tradition that presents the growth and flowering of the humble violet as a story of modest, and often chaste, beauty. Perhaps the best example, roughly contemporary with the Bern Riddles, is from a poem about violets written by the sixth century Frankish poet, Venantius Fortunatus, in one of his letters to Radegund, a former Frankish queen who became abbess of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers. In the poem, the violet arises early in spring, and its beauty is not as great as the larger rose or lily, but its nobility and regal purple sets it apart from the others. 
If the season bore me the customary white lilies, or the rose were brilliant with dazzling scarlet, I would… send them gladly as a humble gift to the great…

Dyed with regal purple, they exhale a regal scent, and with their leaves pervade all with their scent and with their beauty. May you both have equally both of the things which they bear…

—Venantius Fortunatus, “Poem 8.6” (translated by Judith George)

Similarly, our riddle emphasises the violet’s smallness twice (lines 1 and 5), the conventional beauty of its sister-flowers (line 2), and its early flowering (line 3). It seems likely that the two texts are drawing on the same tradition, even if they are not directly linked.

“Early dog-violets. Photograph (by H. Zell) from Wikimedia Commons (licence: CC BY-SA 3.0)”



The reference in Line 5-6 to the flower’s “soul” or “energy” (“spiritus”) fits nicely with the idea of modest beauty. However, it also recalls a line from an earlier riddle written by Symphosius, an enigmatic riddler who wrote 100 influential riddles, probably at some point between the third and fifth centuries: Spiritus et magnus, quamvis sim corpore parvo (“My soul is great, although I might have a small body”). Spiritus, which can mean soul, can also mean air or breath too—thus referring to the violet’s fragrance. And this can “show the way” to those who seek the plant, despite being “seen by no one.”
One of the things that I like about this riddle is how carefully the metaphors and double-meanings are crafted—botanical reality is carefully intertwined with ideas about aging, modesty, and the body and soul. It is the kind of riddle that really grows on you!

Notes:

References and Suggested Reading:

Venantius Fortunatus, “Poem 8.6: To Lady Radegund about violets.” In Judith George (ed. and trans.), Venantius Fortunatus: Personal and Political Poems. Translated Texts for Historians, Volume 23. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995. Page 70.

Tags: latin Bern Riddles

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