IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1701: Riddling in Anglo-Saxon England and Beyond, III: Marvellous Metaphors

Thursday 9 July 2015, 14.15-15.45

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:	Pirkko Koppinen, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Paper 1701-a	'Wundor' and 'Wrætlice': Wondrous Wordplay in the Old English Riddles (Language: English) Sharon Rhodes, Department of English, University of Rochester, New York Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Old English
Paper 1701-b	Warriors and Their Battle Gear: Conceptual Blending in Riddles 5, 17, and 20 of the Exeter Book (Language: English) Karin E. Olsen, Afdeling Engelse Taal en Cultuur, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Rhetoric
Paper 1701-c	Enigmatic Discourses in Riddle 49 (and Another New Solution) (Language: English) Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract	Session III interrogates literary techniques employed by a range of the Exeter Book Riddles, including Riddles 5, 17, 20, 44, and 49, focusing in particular on metaphor. These techniques range from the use of high poetic language to defamiliarise the familiar, to conceptual blending, to the deliberately deceptive deployment of familiar discourses. Together these papers reveal the rhetorical sophistication of these apparently casual, humorous texts and thus justify the serious issues that have been raised in all three of the sessions.