Crossley-Holland, Kevin

The Exeter Book Riddles

The ninety-six Anglo-Saxon riddles in the eleventh-century Exeter Book are poems of great charm, zest, and subtlety. This volume contains Crossley-Holland’s translations of seventy-five fascinating and discursive riddles, while a further sixteen are also translated in the notes. These translations are widely anthologised in Britain and the USA. Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias set some of them to music. In addition, Ralph Steadman has illustrated them and Michael Fairfax has incorporated them in his Riddle Sculpture.

They are full of sharp observation, earthy humour and above all – a sense of wonder.