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-a	Nightmare 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-b	Wonderwater: 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-c	The 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.