Riddle 26

[highlyeccentric]

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Riddle 26 has been solved by rayneshadow.

Suggestions included:

*a phallus, from all and sundry. phrasemuffin wisely noted that it wasn't all that useful to one's neighbours.
*A rose, from both Azzy and Phrasemuffin. Works but isn't hairy enough.
*From lepsdavid, who actually knew the answer, we have the suggestion of a long-handled fire stoker thing, with a fur hand grip to stop heat transferrence. Except that i'm not sure if that's historically accurate.

the answer is in fact
'An Onion'.

well, that's how it's usually solved. The scribe of the Exeter book wisely didn't put the solution as the title of the riddle (unlike the scribes of the latin riddle books of the day). So it could be anything, really. But probably an onion or something in that class. Personally i wouldn't want to be doing suggestive things with an onion, looks rather uncomfortable. A leek is a bit more phallic but doesn't smell so much.
I'm told spring onions are long and thin and make you cry. Provided they were grown in Anglo-Saxon England, that, i think, is the answer.

Comments

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

whoo! whatsit!

there we go then... i'd probably answer to the name of any of my old characters. who were mostly male, so that'd be interesting :P

*returns to reading stuff in anglo saxon*