History Witch: Uncovering Magical Antiquity
Want to know about real magic from history? This is the place. Here we explore primary texts and historical accounts from the past.
Riddle Me This
One of the genres you may not expect to be popular in the Middle Ages is that of riddles. They're not usually as straightforward as the riddles we know. They tend to be more metaphorical. I mentioned before in The Magic of Names the riddle that has 'magpie' as its solution (probably). Many of them are scatalogical or full of double entendres, which also doesn't fit our image of pious monks -- but it's our picture of monks that's wrong.
The myth persists that the church ruled the Middle Ages with a heavy hand. Like the myth that people thought the world was flat, it's just wrong. Many people who thought of themselves as Christian went to church once a year to confess and that was enough for them. Many monks who were part of the church were no more devoted to their religion than the average slacker working for a giant corporation is. It gave them a living if they weren't inheriting any wealth. For many it was an easy life (see Chaucer's monk for example).
This is why there were so many reforms!
But I'm getting away from riddles. Riddles were amusing but they also offer lessons for seeing beyond the surface to the true nature of things. Avoid distraction by discerning with wisdom. Here's Riddle 74 in a translation by Paull Franklin Baum (you can see the original text here). I'll put the answer in a comment. What do you think it is? ;-)
| I’m a wonderful thing, a joy to women, to neighbors useful. I injure no one who lives in a village save only my slayer. I stand up high and steep over the bed; underneath I’m shaggy. Sometimes ventures a young and handsome peasant’s daughter, a maiden proud, to lay hold on me. She seizes me, red, plunders my head, fixes on me fast, feels straightway what meeting me means when she thus approaches, a curly-haired woman. Wet is that eye. |
Comments
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Tuesday, 29 May 2018Haha, I was gonna say apple.
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Thursday, 31 May 2018Sweet riddle! Love it. Thanks for sharing! A most interesting blog.
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ty!
The answer is of course --
an onion!