An Inspirational Gift

As mentioned earlier, Alcuin of York was the proud owner of one very fancy comb. Alcuin was a renowned Anglo-Saxon clergyman and scholar who was educated in York. He later served at the court of Charlemagne, advising the king and teaching in philosophy and theology. Valerie L. Garver, "Alcuin of York". Oxford bibliographies, 2017. https://www-oxfordbibliographies-com.ezproxy.leidenuniv.nl/view/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0221.xml?rskey=t3EmIL&result=3 The comb was double-sided and made from a single piece of elephant tusk.Sorrell, “Alcuin's 'comb' Riddle,” 311. It was given to him by his friend Archbishop Riculf of Mainz around 796 AD. To thank his friend for the present, Alcuin wrote Riculf (who also went by the name Flavius Damoetas) a verse riddle in return.Sorrell, “Alcuin's 'comb' Riddle,” 311.

Bestia nam subito nostras subrepserat aedes, In qua imago fuit capitum miranda duorum; Quae maxilla tamen pariter coniunxerat una. Bis temis decies sed dentibus horruit illa. Esca fuit crescens illis de corpore vivo, Net care, net fruges. Fructus net vina bibentum Dentibus edebat; patulo non tabuit ore. Scis, Damoeta meus, quae sit haec bestia talis?[All of a sudden a wild animal crept up to our house, a beast in which there was a wonderful likeness of two heads, connected however by a single jaw - and this bristled with sixty teeth. Food was building up in these from off a living body, but it was neither meat nor produce. It devoured with its teeth neither fruit nor tipplers’ wines, yet it didn’t waste away with its open mouth. Do you know, my Damoetas, what kind of beast this is?] | Sorrell, “Alcuin's 'comb' Riddle,” 312. Both the Latin text and the translation are taken from Sorrell

As you might have guessed from everything that has been discussed so far, the answer to this riddle is: a comb. The two heads of the beast refer to the two sides of the comb. The food building up in the teeth could simply be hair (PSA to clean your own hairbrush today), but it could also refer to lice.Sorrell, “Alcuin's 'comb' Riddle,” 315. Double-sided combs often have one side with the teeth spaced further apart for brushing, and one side with the teeth close together for getting rid of those pesky pests.

The way Alcuin goes about describing the comb in this riddle is a staple of the Old English riddling tradition, although the riddle itself is in Latin. Alcuin uses many metaphors, calling the comb a wild animal and a beast, and likening the teeth of the comb to a very scary mouth. In doing so, Alcuin gives the comb, a lifeless object, properties of a living beast; it has heads, a jaw, a mouth, teeth, and it “creeps” into Alcuin’s house. This use of metaphor and animating an inanimate object are two very important features of the Old English riddling tradition. Dieter Bitterli, Say What I Am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book & the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 17. Another Old English feature of this riddle is its last line, in which the reader of the riddle is directly asked to solve it.Dieter Bitterli, Say What I Am Called: The Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book & the Anglo-Latin Riddle Tradition. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 88.

A last feature it does not share with other Old English riddles is its topic. Only Alcuin wrote riddles about a comb, but even more strikingly, no other author has written any kind of riddle with such a focus on teeth. No contemporary author at least…