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Old English Riddle No. 39

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Erika von Erhardt-Siebold
Erika von Erhardt-Siebold*
Affiliation:
Vassar College
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Extract

Like the Old English poem 74 on metempsychosis, which will soon be discussed in another article, the present poem 39 has puzzled Anglo-Saxon scholars ever since Dietrich in 1859 suggested the solution Day. Later proposals, Time and Moon, are hardly more convincing than the first. In presenting here the solution Hypostasis Death I wish to say that I consider it to be supported not only by the contents of the poem, but also by historical material, from which it may be concluded that during the early Middle Ages speculative theologians inclined towards the belief in the reality of death.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 61 , Issue 4-Part1 , December 1946 , pp. 910 - 915
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1946

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References

1 From G. Ph. Krapp and E. van Kirk Dobbie, The Exeter Book (Columbia University Press, 1936), p. 199.

2 To appear in Medium Aevum.

3 Isis, xxxv, 4 (1944), 332 f. In addition, two interesting passages are found in Migne, PL, viii, in Liber ad lustin$unm Manichaeum (1005 B-D, 1008 B) and in De Verbis Scripturae: Factum est Vespere et Mane, Dies Unus. (Gen. i, 5), (1010 A-C).