Solving the mystery of 'Wulf and Eadwacer'

In The Conversation, Ian Shiels explains how he thinks he's solved the mystery of the Old English poem 'Wulf and Eadwacer'.

Wulf and Eadwacer occupies just a few lines in the Exeter Book, an anthology of mostly anonymous Old English poems made in the second half of the 10th century. As a relic of a literary culture largely lost, the Exeter Book is priceless. But some of its contents are very hard to understand.

In this piece for The Conversation about his recent paper in Anglia, Ian Shiels explains how their names enable us to crack the poem’s code.

Image: The oyster riddle in the Exeter Book – from Wikimedia Commons