1 - be sonde, sæwealle neah: Locating Non-Human Subjects in an Anthropocentric World

Summary

Place as it features in the Old English literature has received much attention from scholars in recent years, with various studies dedicated to understanding its role and significance. Fabienne Michelet's 2006 publication, for example, offers an in-depth investigation into the Anglo-Saxon's ‘spatial imaginaire’ by exploring such themes as displacement, possession and control, as well as centres and peripheries. Yet, despite these various studies, place as it features in the Old English riddles has received little or no attention. Why scholars have not addressed place in the riddles is perplexing. It is certainly the case that ‘in some writing the physical context may be minimal or may not have a sufficiently important influence on the chief interest of the work to merit our attention’, yet this is not the case for the Exeter Book riddles. A large number of the riddle subjects define themselves by place, and place is often at the forefront of the subject's or narrator's consciousness. A riddle subject's sense of place can be just as important to a riddle's narrative as the beorges setl ‘hill habitation’ is to Guthlac A (383b), the eorðscræf ‘earth-cave’ to The Wife's Lament (28b) and the ærsceaft ‘ancient building’ to The Ruin (16b). As in other Old English texts, place in the riddles is often more than an incidental backdrop; it is fundamental to the fabric of their design. Certain riddles, including primarily, though not exclusively, Riddles 15 (‘badger’), 53 (?), 60 (‘reed-staff’), 71 (‘sword’), 72 (‘ox’), 73 (‘spear’), 77 (‘oyster’), 81 (‘weathercock’), 83 (‘ore’), 88 (‘antler’) and 93 (‘antler’), emphasise a sense of place and make the environment a key part of their narratives, often depicting subjects that lament the loss of their original home. Michelet states that Old English texts ‘are populated by characters deprived of their original home’ but does not offer any riddle subjects as examples of displaced individuals. I hope to address this omission here.

A sense of place is one of the key components of an ecological text, often perceived as ‘foundational for ecological consciousness’. Place can be more than simply a backdrop or setting, grounding humans and non-humans alike in a physical world, an ‘actual environment’.