Conclusion

Summary

The aim of this book has been to explore the ways in which the riddles resist anthropocentrism in their depictions of the natural world and to generate new ways of reading these enigmatic texts using the principles of ecocriticism and ecotheology. Taking the cue from Low, who has argued for more ecocritical readings of Old English texts, I have turned the ecological gaze on to the Exeter Book riddles in order to excavate Anglo-Saxon attitudes to the non-human world. Neville's Representations has provided a comprehensive, indepth study of the natural world in the riddles and beyond; what I have tried to do is refocus the critical gaze on the natural world from nature's point-of-view. What has become apparent is that it is possible, indeed valuable, to discuss resistance to anthropocentrism in these enigmatic texts and that ecocritical explorations of these texts are long overdue.

In fact, the riddle poets’ interests in the material world and humanity's use of it has produced undoubtedly the most ecologically aware texts in the Old English corpus. It is worth recalling here Tupper's 1910 introduction to the Exeter Book riddles and his assertion that what all the riddles have in common is their human interest. It is true that human beings are a strong presence in the texts – their level of human interest has been testified by the amount of literature on the subject – but what I have endeavoured to show, and what I think this study has proved, is that the riddles fulfil the ecocritical principle that ‘human interest is not understood to be the only legitimate interest’. The riddles are interested in how their objects are useful to humans, but they are also interested in the natural beginnings of these objects, in how they came to be in human hands, and in the ethics of their use.

Part of the beadoweorc of this book has been arguing against criticism that has focused on the human interests of the riddles to the exclusion of any other, countermanding such assertions as ‘[Riddle 1] has nothing whatever to do with nature’ and ‘[Riddle 83's] humanity is more discernible than its identity’.