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 lengthHe's oft filled it before. / Now he fills it again.
Here's the answer for all you dirty minded people: Link
Knowing about penises makes me dirty minded? I don't get it.
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Heh...My Anglo-Saxon lit prof used to get the kiddies' attention with this one.
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a key has hole in the front? wtf?
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Yes it does. Look at some antique keys.
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well, any key made to fit on a ring has a hole!
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in the backend! not thefront end.. that riddle is stupid!
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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.
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whateverrrrrr, not a key.
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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!
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Is it a penis?
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Penises are keys of a sort.... :P
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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...
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Well I KNEW that it was a key, of course!
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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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