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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1101: Anglo-Saxon Riddles, I: Reflecting on the Human

Wednesday 5 July 2017, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:The Riddle Ages
Organisers:Megan Cavell, Faculty of English Language & Literature, University of Oxford
Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:Megan Cavell, Faculty of English Language & Literature, University of Oxford
Paper 1101-aStrange Parents: Sources and Analogues of the Exeter Riddles in the Berne Collection
(Language: English)
Thomas Klein, Department of English & Philosophy, Idaho State University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 1101-b'Mec feonda sum feore besnyĆ¾ede': Humans in the Exeter Book Riddles
(Language: English)
Erin Sebo, Department of English, Creative Writing & Australian Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide
Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Old English
Paper 1101-c'The Place Where Men Drink': The Church as Hall in the Exeter Book Riddles
(Language: English)
Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Religious Life
Abstract

The papers in Session I analyse metaphors and depictions of humanity in Old English and Latin riddle collections. Thus, Klein discusses imagery of birth and parenthood in the under-appreciated Latin Berne riddles, as well as this collection's relationship with the poems of the Exeter Book; Sebo examines the antagonistic relationship between humans and the speaking objects of the Old English riddles; and Neville explores the intersection of secular and spiritual spaces in the Exeter Book riddles' depictions of halls.