The Bern Riddles, also known as ''Aenigmata Bernensia'', ''Aenigmata Hexasticha'' or ''Riddles of Tullius'', are a collection of 63 metrical

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

riddles, named after the location of their earliest surviving manuscript, which today is held in Bern (though probably produced in Bourges): the early eighth-century Codex Bernensis 611.

Origin

Although it has been suggested that they were composed in late antiquity, most scholars consider that the Bern Riddles were inspired by the c. fourth-century collection of riddles attributed to

Symphosius Symphosius (sometimes, in older scholarship and less properly, Symposius) was the author of the ''Aenigmata'', an influential collection of 100 Latin riddles, probably from the late antique period. They have been transmitted along with their soluti ...

, and date to around the seventh century. The author of the Bern Riddles is not known but they might have been written by "a Lombard familiar with Mediterranean flora and food"; perhaps in the monastery of

Bobbio Bobbio ( Bobbiese: ; lij, Bêubbi; la, Bobium) is a small town and commune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a di ...

. According to

Archer Taylor Archer Taylor (August 1, 1890September 30, 1973) was one of America's "foremost specialists in American and European folklore","Archer Taylor, UC professor", ''The San Francisco Examiner'', 2 October 1973, p. 49. with a special interest in cultur ...

, "The Berne Riddles are especially interesting for the author's familiarity with the North Italian landscape and its plants. Whoever he was, we may safely call him the first medieval riddle-master in Italy".Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 59. However, some scholars see the origin of the Bern Riddles in Anglo-Saxon England, where several early medieval collections of metrical riddles originated, such as the ''Enigmata'' of Aldhelm.

Subjects

The subjects of the Bern Riddles are as follows: 1. de olla/bowl; 2. de lucerna/lamp; 3. de sale/salt; 4. de scamno/bench; 5. de mansa/table; 6. de calice/(glass) chalice; 7. de uesica/air-bubble; 8. de ouo/egg; 9. de mola/millstone; 10. de scala/ladder; 11. de naue/ship; 12. de grano/grain of corn; 13. de uite/grapevine; 14. de oliua/olive; 15. de palma/palm-tree; 16. de cedride/cedar-berry; 17. de cribro/sieve; 18. de scopa/broom; 19. de cera/wax tablet; 20. de melle/honey; 21. de ape/bee; 22. de oue/sheep; 23. de ignis scintilla/fire-spark; 24. de membrana/parchment; 25. de litteris/letters; 26. de sinapi/mustard; 27. de papiro/(papyrus)-paper; 28. de serico/silkworm; 29. de speculo/mirror; 30. de pisce/fish; 31. de nympha/siphon; 32. de spongia/sponge; 33. de uiola/violet; 34. de rosa/rose; 35. de liliis/lilies; 36. de croco/saffron; 37. de pipere/pepper; 38. de glacie/ice; 39. de hedera/ivy; 40. de muscipula/mousetrap; 41. de uento/wind; 42. de glacie/ice; 43. /silkworms; 44. de margarita/pearl; 45. de terra/earth; 46. de pistillo/pestle; 47. de cochlea/snail-shell; 48. de castanea/chestnut; 49. de pluuia/rain; 50. de uino/wine; 50a. de charta/ ood-pulppaper; 51. de alio/garlic; 52. de rosa/rose; 53. de trutina/weighing-scales; 54. de insubulo/weaving-loom; 55. de sole/sun; 56. de sole/sun; 57. de sole/sun; 58. de luna/moon; 59. de luna/moon; 60. de caelo/sky; 61. de umbra/shadow; 62. de stellis/stars; 63. de uino/wine.'Aenigmata in Dei nomine Tullii ''seu'' aenigmata quaestionum artis rhetoricae enigmata "bernensia", ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in ''Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus'', Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968)
II
541-610.

Examples

For information about the metre of the riddles, see Latin rhythmic hexameter.

Manuscripts

The Bern Riddles come down to us in the following manuscripts:

Editions and translations

The best modern editions of the Bern Riddles are: * 'Aenigmata in Dei nomine Tullii ''seu'' aenigmata quaestionum artis rhetoricae enigmata "bernensia", ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in , Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968)
II
541–610. * Strecker, Karl (ed). “Aenigmata Hexasticha.” MGH: ''Poetae Latini aevi Carolingi,'' Vol. 4.2; Berlin, 1914. pp. 732-759. *
The Bern Riddles
', in
The Riddle Ages: Old English Riddles, Translations and Commentaries
', ed. by Megan Cavell and Neville Mogford, with Matthias Ammon and Victoria Symons (2013-). An edition and English translation of the Bern Riddles begun in 2020.

Origin

Subjects

Examples

Manuscripts

Editions and translations

References

Further reading