Exeter Book Riddle 44 (according to the numbering of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records) is one of the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is accepted to be '

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

'. However, the description evokes a penis; as such, Riddle 44 is noted as one of a small group of Old English riddles that engage in sexual '' double entendre'', and thus provides rare evidence for Anglo-Saxon attitudes to sexuality.

Text and translation

As edited by Krapp and Dobbie, the riddle reads:George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), ''The Exeter Book'', The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pp. 204-5; http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009 .

Editions

* Krapp, George Philip and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie (eds), ''The Exeter Book'', The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pp. 204-5, https://web.archive.org/web/20181206091232/http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009. * Williamson, Craig (ed.), ''The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977), no. 42. * Muir, Bernard J. (ed.), ''The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501'', 2nd edn, 2 vols (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 2000). * Foys, Martin ''et al.'' (eds.
''Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project''
(Madison, WI: Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, 2019-). Online edition annotated and linked to digital facsimile, with a modern translation.

Recordings

* Michael D. C. Drout,
Riddle 44
, performed from the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records edition (29 October 2007).

References

Riddles Old English literature Old English poetry {{poetry-stub