Group Identity and the Early Medieval Riddle Tradition

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Several hundred poetic riddles -- composed and written down from the seventh- through tenth-centuries -- record the minutiae of daily life and worldly wisdom in early medieval England. They tell us that onions could be the butt of a rude joke, cats were then (as now) fiercely independent, and violence did not go unquestioned when swords were given the chance to speak. Because they exist in two languages, Old English and Latin, these riddles are rarely brought into conversation with each other and some are little known to any but specialists. This project will bring the entire early medieval riddle tradition to light, through a website that provides open-access texts and translations, alongside commentaries that unpack literary and cultural information, a discussion forum and competitions that invite members of the public to engage with the riddles in creative ways. If the early medieval riddles are a window onto life many centuries ago, this project seeks to throw it wide open.In exploring the riddles, the project team also aims to gather information about their composers' group identity. The competitive nature of riddling and the use of these poems in the medieval classroom, along with what we know from the biographies of identified authors suggests a shared group identity of high-status men working in England and insular networks with strong links to England. Even so, the very tradition itself was founded on international collaboration, with North African and pan-European poetic material widely circulated, imitated and adapted. The popularity of the riddle tradition both within England and abroad emphasizes that the shared group identity of early medieval riddlers had a global outlook. The riddles themselves could also be deeply subversive, and provide empathic visions of what it meant to live a very different life to that experienced by the high-status, male riddlers whose names and works survive.With all this in mind, the members of the project team seek to examine group identity in four ways:- First, they will examine the networks of riddlers working in England and on the continent -- how did different riddle collections reference each other? Which ones were circulated together, and how can we map their relationships?- Second, they will examine performances of identity within the riddles themselves -- how are high-status/masculine identities explored and reinforced through the subject matter of the riddles? Which riddles subvert these 'norms', and what cultural insights might we glean from them?- Third, they will turn the lens on themselves, to ask how scholars working on the riddles replicate the tradition's policing of group identity -- how does verbal sparring in publications and an emphasis on finding the 'right' solutions mimic the competitiveness of the environment in which they were composed? - Fourth, they will explore contemporary engagements with the riddles -- how might translations and commentaries open up opportunities for learning history through the riddles? How might they be channelled into museum/heritage activities and educational resources?In short, the project seeks to investigate group identity in relation to the production of the riddles, the content of the texts, critical engagement with the riddles, and the reception of the riddles by various user communities outside academia.The riddles have a great deal to say about all aspects of life in the early medieval period. Ultimately, they tell us that this world was much more nuanced than we imagine it when we think of weapons, heroes and battles. Alongside this warrior culture was a complex tradition of literary production, including bilingual riddling and reading communities, which spanned the entire early medieval period and produced hundreds of poems that continue to delight readers today.