Exeter Book Riddle 12 (according to the numbering of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records)[1] is one of the Old English riddles found in the later tenth-century Exeter Book. Its solution is accepted to be 'ox/ox-hide' (though variations on this theme, focusing on leather objects, have been proposed). The riddle has been described as 'rather a cause celebre in the realm of Old English poetic scholarship, thanks to the combination of its apparently sensational, and salacious, subject matter with critical issues of class, sex, and gender'.[2] The riddle is also of interest because of its reference to an enslaved person, possibly ethnically British.
The real historical interest in that riddle is in the references to the "Welsh" (ie: British), their enslavement & their black hair.
Dark hair was considered a slave trait by the Anglo-Saxons.
As edited by Krapp and Dobbie, the riddle reads:[3]
Fotum ic fere, foldan slite, |
I travel by foot, trample the ground, |
The riddle is noted particularly for its rare (and unflattering) depiction of Wealas, a word which either means 'Brittonic people' or 'slaves', or both (Wealas is rendered in Treharne's translation above as 'Welshmen' and the rare but related term wale 'slave-girl ... from Wales'); the precise meanings here have occasioned extensive discussion.[5][6]
The riddle is also noted for its implicit portrayal of sexual desire, which is rare in Old English poetry: the riddle seems to depict a slave and/or ethnically Brittonic person fashioning an object from boiled leather, but certainly does so in ways that evoke sexual activity.[7]
There are a number of early medieval Latin riddles on oxen which stand as analogues to this one.[8]