Friday, September 23, 2005

Anglo-Saxon kaora

Benefits of studying Old English poetry.

Riddle 25
[The Exeter Book, fol. 106b – 107a]
Translated by S.A.J Bradley, Anglo-Saxon Poetry, London, 1982

I am a wondrous creature: to women a thing of joyful expectancy, to close-lying companions serviceable. I harm no city-dweller excepting my slayer alone. My stem is erect and tall – I stand up in bed – and whiskery somewhere down below. Sometimes a countryman’s quite comely daughter will venture, bumptious girl, to get a grip on me. She assaults my red self and seizes my head and clenches me in a cramped place. She will soon feel the effect of her encounter with me, this curly-locked woman who squeezes me. Her eye will be wet.


Answer in the comments section.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Answer : Onion

Now go and read the riddle once again.

Illusionary said...

here's another one:
A curiosity hangs by the thigh of a man, under its master's cloak.It is pierced through in the front;it is stiff and hard and it has a good standing place. When the man pulls up his own robe above his knee,he means to poke with the head of his hanging thing that familiar hole of matching length which he has often filled before.


any guesses??and dont go thru ur SAJ B for the answer!!

Illusionary said...

believe me there are further benefits of studying Old English...

Subhrajyoti Mukhopadhyay said...

the above answer will be key i guess !

here is a follow up :
I have heard of a something-or-other, growing in its nook, swelling and rising, pushing up its covering. Upon that boneless thing a cocky-minded young woman took a grip with her hands; with her apron a lord's daughter covered the tumescent thing.

think abt the answer !

i dwell in possibility said...

kneading dough

i dwell in possibility said...

kneading dough

Deep said...

this merits the board!!
P.S. Soumik, i see ur point.

Illusionary said...

soumik's point mane??eta koto century agey bolechhilo kono Anglo-Saxon lok, and copied by a monk(probably sex-starved)..u shld appreciate it.

Deep said...

good lord love, just coz some stupid riddler riddles us this a thousand years ago doesn't mean his abilities are above reproach. o well, it's a good riddle otherwise, if it makes u hapy :) i still say someone get a printout and pin it up.

Deep said...

*happy

Illusionary said...

u ppl think ur smarter than ur predecessors just becoz u can write better now??write me a better riddle than the 'stupid riddler' as you call him..write it on a parchment and get monks to approve of it and copy it despite its sexual connotations,and make it survive fifteen hundred years and get published and then come back to me and I shall accept that I am wrong.
And do pin it up Deep.
And who is neelini Soumik??

Rimi said...

i agree with illusionary's rant above. i'm not above trashing supposed classics, but i am against general superiority of tone.

illusionary, you don't know neelini? she's this classmate, our year. hardly ever comes to college. will point her out when i see her around next.

Illusionary said...

oh, thank you rimi.
And this neelini person sounds most interesting-next time u see her do point her out to me.

sv3 said...

These riddles should replace Shakespeare in Class 9 and 10 for the ICSE. That way, students can actually learn something.

Illusionary said...

Oh Will had a charm of his own, the dear fellow.

Illusionary said...

yes .u clearly have nothing better to do in life than create problems.

Illusionary said...

and what does it have to do with me if neelini doesnt go to college??

Sue said...

Obviously Kanti, nobody's pointed out Willy-boy's randier innuendo to you...

Poorna Banerjee said...

the most important innuendo being the willy part...