It's a sword, honest
Sep. 26th, 2011 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nineveh_ukI was reading some Anglo-Saxon poetry the other day, reminded of its existence by a friend complaining about teaching The Dream of the Rood. I rather like The Dream, which is basically HC Andersen’s The Fir Tree, but with added religion.
Anyway, I found myself in the riddles section, reflecting on the noble tradition of knob jokes in English literature, so in the interest of keeping literary tradition alive, I give you a modern version. I can’t compose in Old English, so this one is in the style of Anglo-Saxon translators.
Long and hard I lie by the leg of a man. Sometimes that hairy young man takes me from my hiding place to hold me in his hand. He fiddles me with his fingers. He would not be without me – I give him great joy!
A mobile phone. What else could it be, you filthy fanperson, you!
Question – what the hell is the dark-haired Welsh girl doing in the clean interpretation of Riddle XII? As she’s a slave, I am wondering something like a leather a bucket used in cleaning, but really I’m baffled.
And because once you start, you can't stop...
I tell you of a wondrous thing. A young woman drew me from beneath the covering cloth, took my round length firmly in her hand. That jolly girl inserted me into that hole I was made to fit, plunged and twisted me firmly in my place. I set up a great roaring! She was transported with delight.
A: A car key.
Anyway, I found myself in the riddles section, reflecting on the noble tradition of knob jokes in English literature, so in the interest of keeping literary tradition alive, I give you a modern version. I can’t compose in Old English, so this one is in the style of Anglo-Saxon translators.
Long and hard I lie by the leg of a man. Sometimes that hairy young man takes me from my hiding place to hold me in his hand. He fiddles me with his fingers. He would not be without me – I give him great joy!
A mobile phone. What else could it be, you filthy fanperson, you!
Question – what the hell is the dark-haired Welsh girl doing in the clean interpretation of Riddle XII? As she’s a slave, I am wondering something like a leather a bucket used in cleaning, but really I’m baffled.
And because once you start, you can't stop...
I tell you of a wondrous thing. A young woman drew me from beneath the covering cloth, took my round length firmly in her hand. That jolly girl inserted me into that hole I was made to fit, plunged and twisted me firmly in my place. I set up a great roaring! She was transported with delight.
A: A car key.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 07:24 pm (UTC)Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-26 09:10 pm (UTC)Re: Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-27 04:26 am (UTC)Re: Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-27 11:17 am (UTC)Re: Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-27 10:19 am (UTC)The advantage of case endings is that once you've got them sorted you get to put all the words in any order you like. At least if Anglo-Saxon is anything like Finnish, which it isn't really.
Re: Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-27 11:22 am (UTC)Re: Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-27 11:43 am (UTC)Fred Karlsson's Finnish Grammar says there are 15 Finnish cases but then he only gives you inflection tables for 11 of them.
Re: Þis lif læne on londe
Date: 2011-09-27 06:22 pm (UTC)15 Finnish cases but then he only gives you inflection tables for 11 of them
I once again marvel that anyone is capable of learning Finnish as a second language.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 09:39 pm (UTC)As to Riddle XXII, I had a vague memory of some sort of leather curing process? A quick google provides this, starting a bit down the page with "instigated an investigation into Anglo-Saxon leather-working technology" and stopping when he starts going on about Freud (unless you like that sort of thing, obviously). But this is very, very much Not My Period, and any vague knowledge I have about it comes only from a fondness for riddles, so I have no idea at all how reliable or accurate either Wilcox or his interpretion is.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 10:20 pm (UTC)Boggles at icon
Date: 2011-09-27 08:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 06:42 pm (UTC)What's long and hard, shaped like a cigar and full of se(a)men? (This really only works as a spoken riddle, because the answer, of course, is a submarine.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 09:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-27 03:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 07:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 09:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 07:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 09:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 09:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 08:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-26 09:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-27 03:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-27 08:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-27 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-27 06:04 pm (UTC)