The “Exeter Book,” – aka Exeter, Cathedral Library, MS 3501 f. 112v – contains about 100 riddles in Old English. This example is number 45. If you are a Tolkein fan, you might remember Golem asking riddles at one point in _The Hobbit_: it was this genre that inspired Tolkein. The “Exeter Book” was recorded in a highly religious atmosphere, but many of the riddles are playful – and some have overtly sexual double-entendres. The solutions aren’t spelled out exactly, making the game of guessing what the poet is describing more fun. The puzzle here is usually answered with “bookworm” or “moth” — but this bug is highly anthropomorphicized.
Source(s): Pictured here is the “Exeter Book,” an Old English transcription, and a modern English translation (by Craig Williamson, _The Old English Riddles of “The Exeter Book”_, Chapel Hill, 1977).
