Many readers of Anglo-Saxon fiction will be aware that the Anglo-Saxons loved a good riddle. Some of them are so abstruse that scholars are unable to fathom the meaning. We are lucky to have the Exeter Book in Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, which is a (late) 10th-century book or codex of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The book was donated to the library of Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter in 1072. It is believed originally to have contained 130 leaves, of which the first 8 have been replaced with other leaves; the original first 8 pages are lost. The Exeter Book is the largest (and perhaps oldest) known collection of Old English poetry/literature still in existence, containing about a sixth of the Old English poetry that has come down to u
