Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Exeter Book, an anthology of Old English poetry produced in the late tenth century includes a collection of almost one hundred riddles, at least two of which may be solved as “book” or, more specifically, “Bible.” Among these, Riddle 26 perhaps offers the best encapsulation of the ways in which the Bible was conceptualized in Anglo-Saxon England and represented in its literature. The riddle reveals a fascination with the physical artifact of the book itself and emergent technologies of writing and literacy, as well as an awareness of the Bible's material value as a precious treasure or commodity. The text then moves on to catalogue the more abstract benefits contained within the book-ranging from allusions to the Bible as a source of spiritual grace and redemption to a very pragmatic list of the worldly advantages to be gained by its readers.       Mec feonda sum feore besnyþede,       woruldstrenga binom, wætte siþþan,       dyfde on wætre, dyde eft þonan,       sette on sunnan, þær ic swiþe beleas       herum þam þeic hæfde. Heard mec sippan       snað seaxses ecg, sindrum begrunden       fingras feoldan, ond mec fugles wyn       geondsprengde speddropum spyrede geneahhe,       ofer brunne brerd, beamtelge swealg,       streames dæle, stop eft on mec,       siþade sweartlast. Mec siþþan wrah       hæleð hleobordum, hyde beþenede,       gierede mec mid golde; forþon me gliwedon ... log in or subscribe to read full text