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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 802: Anglo-Saxon Riddles and Wisdom, III: Medievalist and Comparative Approaches

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 16.30-18.00

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:Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Paper 802-aNightmare of the Rood: Enigmatic Terror in the Medievalist Fiction of M. R. James
(Language: English)
Patrick J. Murphy, Department of English, Miami University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 802-bWonderwater: The Idea of the Riddle, Modern and Medieval
(Language: English)
Gillian R. Overing, Department of English, Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Clare A. Lees, Department of English Language & Literature, King's College London
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Paper 802-cThe Neglected Joys of Arabic and Finnish Riddles: Reading Anglo-Saxon Riddles Comparatively
(Language: English)
Alaric Hall, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
Index terms: Language and Literature - Comparative, Language and Literature - Old English
Abstract

The papers in Session III examine links between Anglo-Saxon riddles/wisdom and literary works from other periods and cultures. Thus, Murphy discusses the influence of the Anglo-Latin enigmata, Old English riddles and The Dream of the Rood on the ghost stories of M.R. James; Lees and Overing explore the relationship between the modern and medieval in the context of Roni Horn's Wonderwater and the Old English water riddles; and Hall delves into the Arabic and Finnish corpora in order to situate Anglo-Saxon ecocriticism within a wider riddling tradition.