IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1501: Riddling in Anglo-Saxon England and Beyond, I: Engaging with the Physical World

Thursday 9 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	The Riddle Ages: An Anglo-Saxon Riddle Blog
Organisers:	Megan Cavell, Department of English, Durham University Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Megan Cavell, Department of English, Durham University
Paper 1501-a	Encounters of the Third Kind: Materiality and Some Exeter Book Riddles (Language: English) Pirkko Koppinen, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Other
Paper 1501-b	Shields and Other Animals: Riddling Approaches to the Natural World in Early Scandinavia (Language: English) Hannah Burrows, Centre for Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 1501-c	Models of Mutation and Mutilation in Anglo-Saxon Riddles (Language: English) Cameron Laird, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, Downtown Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Latin
Abstract	The papers in Session 1 include discussions of Old English, Old Norse, and Anglo-Latin riddles. They are united by a focus on the ways in which material reality is represented by these texts. Thus Koppinen explores the insights into Anglo-Saxon material objects gained by attempting to translate the riddles into Finnish, Burrows examines the use of humour and wordplay to reflect on early Scandinavians’ relationship with the world, and Laird compares the Exeter Book’s riddles about the transformation of natural materials with Anglo-Latin sources and analogues.