Epistola ad Acircium

The Epistola ad Acircium, sive Liber de septenario, et de metris, aenigmatibus ac pedum regulis ('letter to Acircius, or the book on sevens, and on metres, riddles, and the regulation of poetic feet') is a Latin treatise by the West-Saxon scholar Aldhelm (d. 709). It is dedicated to one Acircius, understood to be King Aldfrith of Northumbria (r. 685-704/5). It was a seminal text in the development of riddles as a literary form in medieval England.

The late 10th-century or early 11th-century London, British Library, Royal MA 12 c xxiii, folio 83r, showing the beginning of Aldhelm's acrostic preface

Origins

Aldhelm records that his riddles, which appear in this collection, were composed early in his career "as scholarly illustrations of the principles of Latin versification"; they may have been the work where he established his poetic skill in Latin.[1] Aldhelm's chief source was Priscian's Institutiones Grammaticae.

Contents

The treatise opens with a verse praefatio ("preface") addressing 'Acircius', which is remarkably contrived, incorporating both an acrostic and a telestich: the first letters of each line in the left-hand margin spell out a phrase which is paralleled by the same letters on the right-hand margin of the poem, forming a double acrostic. This 36-line message reads "Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas" ("Aldhelm composed a thousand lines in verse").[2][3]

After the preface, the letter consists of three treatises:

  • De septenario, treatise on the number seven in arithmology
  • De metris, treatise on metre, including the Enigmata (see below).
  • De pedum regulis, didactive treatise on metrical feet, such as iambs and spondees.

The Enigmata

The Epistola is best known today for including one hundred hexametrical riddles, which Aldhelm included for purposes of illustration of metrical principles. Among the more famous are the riddle entitled Lorica, and the last and longest riddle, Creatura.[4]

Aldhelm's model was the collection known as Symposii Aenigmata ("The Riddles of Symphosius"),[5] and many of his riddles were directly inspired by Symphosius's. But overall, Aldhelm's collection is quite different in tone and purpose: as well as being an exposition of Latin poetic metres, diction, and techniques, it seems to be intended as an exploration of the wonders of God's creation.[6] The riddles generally become more metrically and linguistically complex as the collection proceeds. The first eight riddles deal with cosmology. Riddles 9-82 are more heterogeneous, covering a wide variety of animals, plants, artefacts, materials and phenomena, but can be seen to establish purposeful contrasts (for example between the light of a candle in Enigma 52 and that of the Great Bear in 53) or sequences (for example the animals of Enigmata 34-39: locust, screech-owl, midge, crab, pond-skater, lion). Riddles 81-99 seem all to concern monsters and wonders. Finally, the long hundredth riddle is "Creatura", the whole of Creation.[7] The Latin enigmata of Aldhelm and his Anglo-Latin successor are presented in manuscripts with their solutions as their title, and seldom close with a challenge to the reader to guess their solution.[1]

Example

An example of an enigma by Aldhelm is his Elleborus, by which word Aldhelm understood not the hellebore, but woody nightshade.[8] It is number 98 in his collection:

Latin original Literal translation Literary translation

Ostriger en arvo vernabam frondibus hirtis Conquilio similis: sic cocci murice rubro Purpureus stillat sanguis de palmite guttis. Exuvias vitae mandenti tollere nolo Mitia nec penitus spoliabunt mente venena; Sed tamen insanum vexat dementia cordis Dum rotat in giro vecors vertigine membra.[9]
Purple-bearing, lo!, I was growing in a field/the countryside, with shaggy/rough/hairy foliage/stalks/branches
similar to a shellfish/purple-fish/purple dye/purple cloth; thus with red murex/purple dye of my berry/red dye
purple blood drips/trickles from the vine-shoots in drops.
I do not wish to take away from the chewer the trappings of life,
nor will my gentle juices/poisons/potions utterly rob him of his mind;
but nevertheless a madness of the heart shakes/agitates/torments him, mad,
while, deranged by giddiness, he whirls his limbs in a circle.[10]
A purple flower, I grow in the fields with shaggy foliage.
I am very similar to an oyster: thus with reddened dye of scarlet
a purplish blood oozes by drops from my branches.
I do not wish to snatch away the spoils of life from him who eats me,
nor do my gentle poisons deprive him utterly of reason.
Nevertheless a certain touch of insanity torments him
as, mad with dizziness, he whirls his limbs in a circle.[11]

List of riddles
London, British Library, Royal MA 12 c xxiii folio 93r, showing Aldhelm's riddles on the pen and the unicorn

The subjects of Aldhelm's riddles are as follows.[12]

number title (Latin) title (English translation)
1 terra earth
2 ventus wind
3 nubes cloud
4 natura nature
5 iris rainbow
6 luna moon
7 fatum fate
8 Pliades Pleiades
9 adamas diamond
10 molosus mastiff
11 poalum bellows
12 bombix silkworm
13 barbita organ
14 pavo peacock
15 salamandra salamander
16 luligo flying fish
17 perna bivalve mollusc (pinna nobilis)
18 myrmicoleon ant-lion
19 salis salt
20 apis bee
21 lima file
22 acalantida nightingale
23 trutina scales
24 dracontia dragon-stone
25 magnes ferrifer lodestone
26 gallus rooster
27 coticula whetstone
28 Minotaurus Minotaur
29 aqua water
30 elementum alphabet
31 ciconia stork
32 pugillares writing tablets
33 lorica armour
34 locusta locust
35 nycticorax night-raven
36 scnifes midge
37 cancer crab
38 tippula pond strider
39 leo lion
40 piper pepper
41 pulvillus pillow
42 strutio ostrich
43 sanguisuga leech
44 ignis fire
45 fusum spindle
46 urtica nettle
47 hirundo swallow
48 vertico poli sphere of the heavens
49 lebes cauldron
50 myrifyllon milfoil (yarrow)
51 eliotropus heliotrope
52 candela
53 Arcturus Arcturus
54 cocuma duplex double boiler
55 crismal chrismal
56 castor beaver
57 aquila eagle
58 vesper sidus evening star
59 penna pen
60 monocerus unicorn
61 pugio dagger
62 famfaluca bubble
63 corbus raven
64 columba dove
65 muriceps mouser
66 mola mill
67 cribellus sieve
68 salpix trumpet
69 taxus yew
70 tortella loaf of bread
71 piscis fish
72 colosus colossus
73 fons spring
74 fundibalum sling
75 crabro hornet
76 melarius apple tree
77 ficulnea fig tree
78 cupa vinaria wine cask
79 sol et luna sun and moon
80 calix vitreus glass cup
81 Lucifer morning star
82 mustela weasel
83 iuvencus steer
84 scrofa praegnans pregnant sow
85 caecus natus man born blind
86 aries ram
87 clipeus shield
88 basiliscus serpent
89 arca libraria bookcase
90 puerpera geminas enixa woman bearing twins
91 palma palm
92 farus editissima tall lighthouse
93 scintilla spark
94 ebulus dwarf elder
95 Scilla Scylla
96 elefans elephant
97 nox night
98 elleborus hellebore
99 camellus camel
100 Creatura Creation

Influence

Aldhelm's riddles were almost certainly the key inspiration for the forty riddles of Tatwine, an early eighth-century Mercian priest and Archbishop of Canterbury, along with the probably slightly later riddles of Eusebius and of Boniface.[13][14][15] Two appear in Old English translation in the tenth-century Old English Exeter Book riddles, and Aldhelm's riddles in general may have been an inspiration for that collection.[16]

Editions and translations
  • Ehwald, Rudolf (ed.). Aldhelmi Opera. MGH Scriptores. Auctores antiquissimi 15. Berlin, 1919. Scans available from the Digital MGH.
  • Aldhelm: The Prose Works. Trans. Michael Lapidge and Michael Herren. D. S. Brewer, 1979. ISBN 0-85991-041-5.
  • Aldhelm: The Poetic Works. Trans. Michael Lapidge and James L. Rosier. Boydell & Brewer, 1984. ISBN 0-85991-146-2.

The Enigmata only
  • The Riddles of Aldhelm. Text and translation by James Hall Pittman. Yale University Press, 1925.
  • Through a Gloss Darkly: Aldhelm’s Riddles in the British Library ms Royal 12.C.xxiii, ed. and trans. by Nancy Porter Stork, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts, 98 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990). (A digital facsimile of the manuscript edited in this book is available here.)
  • Saint Aldhelm's Riddles Translated by A. M. Juster, University of Toronto Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4426-2892-2.

References
  1. Andy Orchard, 'Enigmata', in The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. by Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, 2nd edn (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2013), s.v.
  2. Juster, A M (2015). Saint Aldhelm's Riddles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 2–3, 77–78. ISBN 978-1-4426-2892-2.
  3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aldhelm". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 535–536.
  4. Sebo, Erin (2018). In enigmate : the history of a riddle, 400-1500. Dublin, Ireland. ISBN 978-1-84682-773-0. OCLC 1055160490.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Sebo, Erin (2018). In enigmate : the history of a riddle, 400-1500. Dublin, Ireland. ISBN 978-1-84682-773-0. OCLC 1055160490.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. F. H. Whitman, 'Medieval Riddling: Factors Underlying Its Development', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 71 (1970), 177–85.
  7. Mercedes Salvador-Bello, 'Patterns of Compilation in Anglo-Latin Enigmata and the Evidence of A Source-Collection in Riddles 1-40 of the Exeter Book, Viator, 43 (2012), 339–374 (pp. 341-46). 10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554.
  8. Cameron, M. L. 1985. ‘Aldhelm as naturalist: a re-examination of some of his Enigmata’, Peritia 4: 117–33 (pp. 131–33).
  9. Ehwald, Rvdolfvs (ed.), Aldhelmi Opera, Monumenta Germanicae Historica, Auctorum Antiquissorum, 15, 3 vols (Berlin, 1919), i 144. Accessed from
  10. Alaric Hall, 'Madness, Medication — and Self-Induced Hallucination? Elleborus (and Woody Nightshade) in Anglo-Saxon England, 700–900', Leeds Studies in English, n.s. 44 (2013), 43-69 (pp. 45-46).
  11. Lapidge, Michael and James L. Rosier (trans.), Aldhelm: The Poetic Works (Cambridge, 1985), p. 93.
  12. Saint Aldhelm's "Riddles", ed. and trans. by A.M. Juster (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), pp. 69-71.
  13. Lapidge, Michael; Rosier, James (2009). Aldhelm: The Poetic Works. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer. p. 66. ISBN 9781843841982.
  14. Orchard, Andy (1994). The Poetic Art of Aldhelm. CAmbridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 242. ISBN 9780521034579.
  15. Salvador-Bello. Isidorean Perceptions of Order. pp. 222–4.
  16. Andy Orchard, "Enigma Variations: The Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Tradition," in Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, ed. by Andy Orchard and Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, 2 vols (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), I 284-304.
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