Thousand Year Old Riddle for All You Dirty Minded People …

Posted by Alex in Book & Lit on November 28, 2007 at 3:03 am


The Exeter Book, a tenth century codex of Anglo-Saxon poetry is the largest collection of Old English literature. In addition to poems, there are about a hundred or so riddles (and yes, some of them are quite ribald!)

See if you can guess the answer to this 1,000-year old riddle:

Swings by his thigh / a thing most magical!
Below the belt / beneath the folds
Of his clothes it hangs / a hole in its front end,
stiff-set and stout / it swivels about.

Levelling the head / of this hanging tool,
its wielder hoists his hem / above his knee;
it is his will to fill / a well-known hole
that it fits fully / when at full length

He’s oft filled it before. / Now he fills it again.

Here’s the answer for all you dirty minded people: Link



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COMMENT

14 comments to "Thousand Year Old Riddle for All You Dirty Minded People …"

  1. Abestar
    November 28th, 2007 at 4:15 am

    Knowing about penises makes me dirty minded? I don’t get it.

  2. Laurel
    November 28th, 2007 at 4:21 am

    Heh…My Anglo-Saxon lit prof used to get the kiddies’ attention with this one.

  3. Tiago
    November 28th, 2007 at 7:35 am

    a key has hole in the front? wtf?

  4. mcmungle
    November 28th, 2007 at 7:51 am

    Yes it does. Look at some antique keys.

  5. Sid Morrison
    November 28th, 2007 at 8:20 am

    well, any key made to fit on a ring has a hole!

  6. Tiago
    November 28th, 2007 at 8:40 am

    in the backend! not thefront end.. that riddle is stupid!

  7. Angel
    November 28th, 2007 at 8:52 am

    If you look at old keys they have a hole in the front of them. The shaft of the key was cylindrical and had a forward-facing hole in the front. This hole went over another shaft inside the lock to help rotate the key properly. Look it up on google.

  8. samantha
    November 28th, 2007 at 10:01 am

    whateverrrrrr, not a key.

  9. Benny
    November 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am

    It’s not my fault people in the past used to make keys in the form of penises. In fact, we aren’t the dirty minded, those old perverts were!

  10. Miss Cellania
    November 28th, 2007 at 10:14 am

    Is it a penis?

  11. just a guy
    November 28th, 2007 at 10:38 am

    Penises are keys of a sort…. :P

  12. emptyminded
    November 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am

    The “key” to this riddle is that it is Anglo-Saxon. Only an Anglo-Saxon key would fit it’s hole fully and swing by it’s wearer’s thigh. Now if it were Scot, or maybe French, the riddle could have a dual meaning…

  13. K
    November 28th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

    Well I KNEW that it was a key, of course!

  14. Dogrun81
    November 28th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

    What’s with the picture of the “saucy woman”? Apparently they want to make sure our mind goes in the gutter.


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