(Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2018) Salvador Bello, Mercedes; Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Filología Inglesa (Literatura Inglesa y Norteamericana)
Riddle 90 constitutes one of the most obscure texts included in the Exeter Book collection. Being fully written in Latin, this piece has so far frustrated a plausible explanation of its puzzling clues to the extent that no convincing answer has been found for it yet. The main aim of this essay however is not to put forward another solution for the long catalogue of proposals that has already been offered by scholars. Instead, I will here argue that the relative lack of viable solutions comes from the fact that this text issued from a reworking of a school beast poem, which was awkwardly adapted to the enigmatic format. A better understanding of this poem can thus be attained if its rhetorical components and imagery are read in the light of beast poetry deriving from classical fables used in the medieval period. This hypothesis can also help explain the overemphatic occurrence of textual elements that are typical of the enigmatic genre. This essay will therefore try to demonstrate that the contents of Riddle 90 are reminiscent of this literary tradition, which developed in the school context of the early medieval period.
