Adventures in Anglo-Saxon
Jul. 31st, 2007 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricExeter Book Riddle 4 is an extremely complex and enigmatic riddle. Although various solutions have been proposed (the most accepted being bell, but bucket, millstone, necromancy, flail, lock, hand-mill, pen and phallus have also been proposed), none have yet received consensus agreement. (Melanie Heyworth, The Devil's in the Detail, Neophilologus 91:175-196)
My, nothing like knowing what we're talking about, is there?
That's as far as I got in my attempt to beStalker Serious Student and read the teacher's article on the homework. I believe she feels she knows what we're talking about, though, and it has something to do with the Devil. Or a Devil, I'm not sure which.
Also, I have found another stupid Anglo-Saxon contradictory word. (ge)gan- to go, to come, to move or depart. Options a, c and d work together; options b and c work together. How a and d came to be in the same word with b I am unsure.
BREAKING NEWS: Kate comes in and announces: I keep hearing a repetitive noise. I'm not sure if it's someone having sex downstairs, or if it's a pidgeon.
the link between those two seems about as obvious as the link between bells, necromancy, handmills and phalluses. (Phallusi?)
My, nothing like knowing what we're talking about, is there?
That's as far as I got in my attempt to be
Also, I have found another stupid Anglo-Saxon contradictory word. (ge)gan- to go, to come, to move or depart. Options a, c and d work together; options b and c work together. How a and d came to be in the same word with b I am unsure.
BREAKING NEWS: Kate comes in and announces: I keep hearing a repetitive noise. I'm not sure if it's someone having sex downstairs, or if it's a pidgeon.
the link between those two seems about as obvious as the link between bells, necromancy, handmills and phalluses. (Phallusi?)
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:08 pm (UTC)(Psst: bells + necromancy = Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. *nods*)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:42 pm (UTC)...sorry =P
no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:52 pm (UTC)you're not sorry at all...
and i had forgotten about the ship too, i just thought he'd be the type to be mortified by mention of phalluses particularly when the only possessor of a phallus for most of the story is him.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 12:22 pm (UTC)i'm always favourably disposed toward necromancy as a result ;)