A hairy woman gives birth to a bald child… Eggs, birds, mothers, and more in (mostly) early medieval Arabic, Hebrew, Norse, Latin and Greek riddles

White Rose Medieval Lecture

Eggs are a widespread theme for riddles, which makes egg-riddles a particularly useful means to chart commonalities and disjunctions in (mostly) early medieval west-Eurasian culture. They are particularly informative about the cultural position of birds, obviously, but also have stories to tell about gender (and particularly motherhood), food, and treasure. This broad scope will, inter alia, allow this paper to contradict the long-held view that only two of our medieval Norse riddles have international analogues; to consolidate a solution for one of the earliest Hebrew riddles; and to show that a later trend in Arabic riddling for focusing on metaphors of precious metals in egg riddles has early medieval roots, and to contemplate what that tells us about the early medieval world.

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