A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs

by Craig Williamson (Editor/Translator)

In "A Feast of Creatures," Craig Williamson recasts nearly one hundred Old English riddles of the Exeter Book into a modern verse mode that yokes the cadences of Aelfric with the sprung rhythm of Gerard Manley Hopkins.Like the early English riddlers before him, Williamson gives voice to the nightingale, plow, ox, phallic onion, and storm-wind. In lean and taut language he offers us mead disguised as a mighty wrestler, the sword as a celibate thane, the silver wine-cup as a seductress, the horn transformed from head-warrior to ink-belly or battle-singer. In his notes and commentary he gives us possible and probable solutions, sources, and analogues, a shrewd sense of literary play, and traces the literary and cultural contexts in which each riddle may be viewed. In his introduction, Williamson traces for us the history of riddles and riddle scholarship.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Craig Williamson is Alfred H. and Peggi Bloom Professor of English Literature at Swarthmore College. He is author of A Feast of Creatures and Beowulf and Other Old English Poems, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth it for the introduction alone, which forces you to see these riddles as more than simply puzzles or double-ententres, but as fascinating literary creations in their own right, expressions of a unique view of what to the Anglo-Saxons was a world teeming with potential life and activity.

Of course, the poems themselves are priceless, and Williamson's versions are finely-crafted things that squirm and kick with just as much vigor as the originals.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is amazing we have this book at all. Between the religions groups of the past 1,000 plus years apt to burn any book they don’t like, and the secular groups of the past 1,000 plus years apt to burn any book at hand when kindling is needed, its amazing it has survived to the present day.

The translator lets the reader know that the book was, judging by the damage done to it, used at various times, among other things, as a coaster and a cutting board. (!!!)

The riddles in the book are a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of a lost world. The answers to the riddles tell us of what was everyday items of the times were, but the riddles themselves reveal a people with a sense of humor that is proof times change, but people don’t, as the saying goes. The innuendos are hilarious, as everyday objects, such as onions, are described with a heavy verbal wink to the audience, leaving the reader just waiting for Michael Scott to burst out: “that’s what she said!”

A great book to get an intimate look at the Anglo-Saxon world.

[michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love me some Anglo-Saxon Riddles.

[Daniel Klawitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The scholarly introduction and the notes are fabulous. The riddles themselves are of varying quality, but fascinating nonetheless.