Anglo-Saxon stuff

I've been very busy "updating" this blog; lots of "updates" because I'm continually adding links to other writers' blogs and websites. Also, I've been adding some "anthropological" stuff for those interested. Several writers have kindly given their permissions to add their sites to my links, and some have even offered to reciprocate! My thanks to Susan Hicks, Carla Nayland, Judith Waldron, and one other whose name slips my mind at the moment. Except for one, they're all "linked" And I will get that one up and linked in a day or two.

Which brings me to the main subject here. I'm writing a trilogy taking place in late Anglo-Saxon and slightly later times. So when I linked to the Nayland site, I was flabbergasted, and absolutely delighted, to find that she had a couple of pieces on Anglo Saxon riddles! Here is one:

Anglo-Saxon riddles Part 1

And here is another one:

Anglo-Saxon riddles Part 2

As you can see, if you read these riddles, they seem kind of "risque", but refer to things that are quite ordinary today, or else were pretty common in those times(one of them is about a mail-shirt). The riddles people in the Western world, including the English-speaking, are pretty pale by comparison. The only one I can think of at the moment is one my daughter found in a book when she was about 10 or so.

"What is the difference between a coyote and a flea?
One howls on the prairie and the other prowls on the hairy"

Not quite upt to "Anglo-Saxon" standards, but heck, those riddles probably helped pass the time on cold, dark winter days and nights when there wasn't a whole lot else to do. And believe me, I'm going to find some source for them, and use a a riddle or two in my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece!

Just one last note: I learned, some years ago, that certain peoples in Africa are "into" riddles in much the same way as people in Anglo-Saxon England. And the riddles are similarly risque-sounding, though they reflect sub-Saharan African experience, more or less.
Anne G