Perceptions of Marriage in<i>Exeter Book Riddles 20</i>and<i>61</i>

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. All Exeter Book Riddles are numbered according to the Krapp and Dobbie system. See G. P. Krapp and E. van K. Dobbie, eds., The Exeter Book. Anglo‐Saxon Poetic Records, 3. New York and London, 1936. 2. N. F. Barley, “Structural Aspects of the Anglo‐Saxon Riddle”, Semiotica, 10 (1974), p. 160. 3. See Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam, adiuvantibus Bonifatio Fischer OSB, Iohanne Gribomont OSB, H. F. D. Sparks, W. Thiele recensuit et brevi apparatus instruxit Robertus Weber OSB editio tertia emendata quam paravit Bonifatius Fischer OSB, editio minor. Stuttgart, 1984. Unless otherwise indicated, all biblical references and quotations throughout this article are to this edition; all further references are given after quotations in the text. 4. J. W. Tanke, “‘Wonfeax Wale’: Ideology and Figuration in the Sexual Riddles of the Exeter Book”, in Class and Gender in Early English Literature: Intersections, B. Harwood and G. Overing, eds. Bloomington, 1994, p. 22. 5. See, for instance, Mercedes Salvador, “The Key to the Body: Unlocking Riddles 42–46”, in Naked Before God: Uncovering the Body in Anglo‐Saxon England, B. C. Withers and J. Wilcox, eds. Medieval European Studies, 3. Morgantown, 2003, pp. 60–96; Glenn Davis, “The Exeter Book Riddles and the Place of the Sexual Idiom in Old English Literature”, in Medieval Obscenities, N. McDonald, ed. Woodbridge, 2006, pp. 39–54. 6. For example, Riddle 44 has the non‐sexual solution of “key” and the sexual solution of “penis”. 7. C. Williamson, ed., The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book. Chapel Hill, 1977, p. 299. 8. Reinhard Gleißner, Die “zweideutigen” altenglischen Rätsel des Exeter Book in ihrem zeitgenössischen Kontext. Regensburger Arbeiten zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 23. Frankfurt, 1984, p. 14. 9. Tanke, “Wonfeax Wale”, p. 29. 10. Cf. H. Magennis, “‘No Sex Please, We're Anglo‐Saxons?’ Attitudes to Sexuality in Old English Poetry and Prose”, Leeds Studies in English, NS 26 (1995), pp. 16–17. See also Davis, “Sexual Idiom”, pp. 39–40. 11. I. Hamnett, “Ambiguity, Classification and Change: The Function of Riddles”, Man, 2 (1967), p. 389. 12. Hamnett, “Ambiguity, Classification and Change”, p. 389. 13. I. Hamnett, “Ambiguity, Classification and Change”, p. 389. 14. Hamnett, “Ambiguity, Classification and Change”, p. 389. 15. Tanke, “Wonfeax Wale”, p. 22 and p. 29. 16. H. Mayr‐Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo‐Saxon England. 3rd edn. University Park, PA, 1991, p. 223. 17. P. Wormald, “Bede, ‘Beowulf’, and the Conversion of the Anglo‐Saxon Aristocracy”, in Bede and Anglo‐Saxon England, R. T. Farrell, ed. Oxford, 1978, pp. 32–95. 18. Barley, “Structural Aspects”, pp. 171–72. 19. S. Lerer, “The Riddle and the Book: The Exeter Book Riddle 42 in Its Contexts”, Papers on Language and Literature, 25 (1989), p. 3; K. Crossley‐Holland, The Exeter Book Riddles, rev. edn. Harmondsworth, 1993, p. xiv. See also P. Lendinara, “The World of Anglo‐Saxon Learning”, in The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, M. Godden and M. Lapidge, eds. Cambridge, 1996, pp. 267–68. 20. For example, see Gleißner, Die “zweideutigen” altenglischen Rätsel; N. Rulon‐Miller, “Sexual Humour and Fettered Desire in Exeter Book Riddle 12”, in Humour in Anglo‐Saxon Literature, J. Wilcox, ed. Woodbridge, 2000, p. 101. 21. D. K. Smith, “Humour in Hiding: Laughter Between the Sheets in the Exeter Book Riddles”, in Humour in Anglo‐Saxon Literature, J. Wilcox, ed., pp. 81ff. 22. M. Nelson, “The Rhetoric of the Exeter Book Riddles”, Speculum, 49 (1974), p. 421. 23. See Davis, “Sexual Idiom”, pp. 39–41. 24. See Davis, “Sexual Idiom”, pp. 41–42. It must be noted that consensus as to what understanding their insights give us remains elusive. 25. J. W. Tanke, “The Bachelor‐Warrior of Exeter Book Riddle 20”, Philological Quarterly, 79 (2000), p. 409. 26. Tanke, “The Bachelor‐Warrior”, p. 409. 27. Marie Nelson, “Old English Riddle 18(20): A Description of Ambivalence”, Neophilologus, 66 (1982), pp. 291–92. 28. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd edn. 20 vols. Oxford and New York, 1989, s. v “obscene”. 29. Unless otherwise indicated, all Old English poetic quotations are taken from The Anglo‐Saxon Poetic Records, G. P. Krapp and E. van K. Dobbie, eds. 6 vols. New York and London, 1931–1953; all further references to Old English poems throughout this article are given after quotations in the text. All Modern English translations are my own. 30. In the following discussion, Old English word definitions are taken from A. Cameron et al., eds., Dictionary of Old English. Toronto, 1986‐ (henceforth DOE); Andreas Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage in Old English. Heidelberg, 1986; J. C. Roberts, C. Kay and L. Grundy, eds., Thesaurus of Old English. 2 vols. London, 1995 (henceforth TOE); J. T. Bosworth and T. N. Toller, An Anglo‐Saxon Dictionary. Oxford, 1882–98, with supplement by T. N. Toller, An Anglo‐Saxon Dictionary…Supplement. Oxford, 1908–21, and addenda by A. Campbell, An Anglo‐Saxon Dictionary…Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda. Oxford, 1972 (henceforth BT); J. R. Clark Hall, A Concise Anglo‐Saxon Dictionary. Cambridge, 4th ed., 1960; rpt. Toronto, 2000 (henceforth Clark Hall). 31. Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, p. 148. 32. Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, pp. 148–49. 33. Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, p. 70. 34. Margaret Clunies Ross, ‘Concubinage in Anglo‐Saxon England’, Past and Present, 108 (1985), p. 19 (rpt. in Anglo‐Saxon History: Basic Readings, D. A. E. Pelteret, ed. Basic Readings in Anglo‐Saxon England, 6. New York and London, 2000, pp. 251–88). Fischer further points out that hæman translates “a whole series of Latin verbs meaning ‘to have intercourse’ such as the neutral (like nubere) coire and dormire or the pejorative adulterare/i, fornicare/i and moechari” (Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, p. 67). 35. H. Magennis, Images of Community in Old English Poetry. Cambridge Studies in Anglo‐Saxon England, 18. Cambridge, 1996, pp. 37–38. 36. Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, p. 67. Fischer thus disagrees with Clunies Ross and BT who, he argues, make central the distinction between the “neutral and pejorative meaning” (p. 67). Clunies Ross argues that although hæmed and its compounds were only “morally neutral […] most commonly used to refer to all sexual relationships that came to the notice of the law” in the earlier Anglo‐Saxon period; “in the later legal codes”, hæmed “came to be used of relationships which the church regarded as illicit” (“Concubinage”, p. 21). 37. See Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, pp. 67–75. 38. For example, Tanke says “hæmed in line 28a clearly means ‘sexual intercourse,’ inasmuch as it is immediately varied by hyhtplega (joyful play)” (“The Bachelor‐Warrior”, p. 417). 39. Rulon‐Miller, “Sexual Humour”, p. 109. 40. Rulon‐Miller, “Sexual Humour”, pp. 111–12. 41. Wim Tigges, “Snakes and Ladders: Ambiguity and Coherence in the Exeter Book Riddles and Maxims”, in Companion to Old English Poetry, H. Aertsen and R. H. Bremmer Jr., eds. Amsterdam, 1994, p. 102. 42. K. Crossley‐Holland, trans., The Exeter Book Riddles. Harmondsworth, rev. ed., 1993, p. 93. 43. Printed as “Poenitentiale Theodori” in F. W. H. Wasserschleben, ed. Die Bußordnungen der abendländischen Kirche nebst einer rechtsgeschichtlichen Einleitung. Halle, 1851; rpt. Graz, 1958, pp. 182–219, Bk 1.II, 1.XIV, 2.XII. 44. R. Fowler, ed. “A Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor”, Anglia, 83 (1965), p. 22. Modern English translation my own. 45. DOE, s. v, flocan. 46. Tauno F. Mustanoja, “The Unnamed Woman's Song of Mourning over Beowulf and the Tradition of Ritual Lamentation”, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 68 (1967), pp. 13–27. 47. Aeschylus: Oresteia, The Choephoroe (‘The Libation Bearers’), H. Lloyd‐Jones trans. London, 1970; rev. 1979. 48. Magennis, “No Sex Please”, p. 18. 49. See Brennu‐Njáls saga, Einar Ól. Sveinsson, ed. Íslenzk fornrit, 12. Reykjavík, 1954, Chapter VII, p. 24. 50. Printed in Wasserschleben, Bußordnungen, p. 216. Modern English translation my own. 51. J. F. Niermeyer and C. Van de Kieft, ediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus: Lexique Latin Médiéval‐Français/Anglais. Leiden, 1976. s. v, nubere §2, p. 723. 52. J. T. McNeill and H. M. Gamer, trans., Medieval Handbooks of Penance: A Translation of the Principal “Libri Poenitentiales”. Records of Western Civilization Series. New York, 1938; rpt. 1990. My emphasis. 53. See particularly A. J. Frantzen, The Literature of Penance in Anglo‐Saxon England. New Jersey, 1983; “The Tradition of Penitentials in Anglo‐Saxon England”, Anglo‐Saxon England, 11 (1983), pp. 23–56; “The Significance of the Frankish Penitentials”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 30 (1979), pp. 409–21. 54. C. A. Lees and G. Overing, Double Agents: Women and Clerical Culture in Anglo‐Saxon England. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, 2001, p. 165; p. 164. See also A. Davies, “The Sexual Conversion of the Anglo‐Saxons”, in This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Xth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old And Middle English and Historical Linguistics. Costerus NS, 80. Amsterdam, 1991, p. 84. 55. P. Payer, Sex and the Penitentials: The Development of a Sexual Code, 550–1150. Toronto, Buffalo and London, 1984, p. 12. 56. S. Hollis, Anglo‐Saxon Women and the Church: Sharing a Common Fate. Woodbridge, 1992; rpt. 1998, p. 23. 57. A. J. Frantzen, “Between the Lines: Queer Theory, the History of Homosexuality, and Anglo‐Saxon Penitentials”, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 26 (1996), p. 270. 58. Cf. Brian McFadden, who has argued that this scene signifies the feminisation of Hrothgar, suggesting that “power has moved to the women's quarters” (“Sleeping after the Feast: Deathbeds, Marriage Beds, and the Power Structure of Heorot”, Neophilologus, 84 [2000], p. 633 and p. 635). See also Tom Clark who labels Hrothgar's wigfruma epithet at 664a “thoroughly ironic”, since Hrothgar is hardly a “war‐leader” if he seeks “out the comfort of his marital bed” (A Case for Irony in Beowulf, with particular reference to its epithets. Bern, 2003, p. 161). 59. This vocabulary supports Jack Goody's observation that “a significant feature of [marriage in] Western societies” is “‘marriage tending towards the companionate’” (Jack Goody, The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe. Cambridge, 1983, p. 129; Goody quotes Peter Laslett from Family Life and Illicit Love in Earlier Generations: Essays in Historical Sociology. Cambridge, 1977, p. 13). 60. Christine Fell, Women in Anglo‐Saxon England. Oxford, 1986, p. 68. 61. I accept that the sexual solution is a vagina, despite some scholarly unease with this idea. See S. L. Higley, “The Wanton Hand: Reading and Reaching into Grammars and Bodies in Old English Riddle 12”, in Naked Before God: Uncovering the Body in Anglo‐Saxon England, B. C. Withers and J. Wilcox, eds., p. 49 and p. 55. 62. That the wife uses her hands to give herself to her husband locates this riddle within the Old English sexual idiom, according to Davis's argument. See Davis, “Sexual Idiom”, pp. 44–54. 63. M. Heyworth, “‘Be rihtre æwe’: Legislating and Regulating Marital Morality in Late Anglo‐Saxon England”. PhD thesis. The University of Sydney, 2006, pp. 175–80. 64. Unless otherwise indicated, all New Testament biblical translations are taken from the Rheims translation, The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Translated out of the Latin Vulgat: Diligently compared with the original Greek. And first published by the English College of Rhemes, anno 1582. Newly revised, and corrected according to the Clementin Edition of the Scriptures. With Annotations for clearing up modern Controversies in Religion, and other Difficulties of Holy Writ. 3rd edn of Richard Challoner, 2 vols (1752). 65. The closest Latin source to that used by Cynewulf has been edited by Michael Lapidge in “Cynewulf and the ‘Passio S. Iulianae’”, in Unlocking the Wordhord: Anglo‐Saxon Studies in Memory of Edward B. Irving, Jr ., M. Amodio and K. O'Brien O'Keeffe, eds. Toronto, 2003, pp. 156–71. See also Richard North, “Metre and Meaning in ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’: Signý Reconsidered”, in Loyal Letters: Studies on Mediaeval Alliterative Poetry and Prose, L. A. J. R. Houwen and A. A. MacDonald, eds. Groningen, 1994, p. 35. 66. Magennis, “No Sex Please”, p. 19. 67. Fischer, Engagement, Wedding and Marriage, pp. 19–20.

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