IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 603: Early Medieval Riddles, II

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:	The Riddle Ages
Organisers:	Megan Cavell, Department of English Literature, University of Birmingham Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Jennifer Neville, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Paper 603-a	Torture and Metamorphosis in Exeter Book Riddle 26 (Language: English) Jasmine Bria, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università di Calabria Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 603-b	Aldhelm versus Predators (Language: English) Megan Cavell, Department of English Literature, University of Birmingham Index terms: Daily Life, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 603-c	Controlling the Uncontrollable: Estrangement and Appropriation in the Nature Riddles of the Exeter Book (Language: English) Karin E. Olsen, Afdeling Engelse Taal en Cultuur, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Philosophy
Abstract	These sessions explore the Latin and Old English riddles of early medieval England and Europe, through a variety of perspectives and methodologies. Bria explores Riddle 26's shift from recognition of the animal to anthropocentricity in a process that justifies the violence of book-making. Cavell discusses the politics of abstracting animal bodies in Aldhelm's Latin riddle collection, with a special focus on weapons. And Olsen illustrates the process of conceptual estrangement and appropriation of the natural world in a selection of Exeter Book riddles.