Abstract
Around the year 695 Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, wrote a collection of one hundred Latin enigmata or riddles to illustrate the rules of Latin metrics and versification, hoping that through that exercise ‘the rudiments of his small talent’ might grow sufficiently to enable him to write eventually ‘of more important subjects’. Almost instantly his Enigmata gained universal popularity: they were read as a primer of Latin poetry, they inspired other Anglo-Saxons (such as Tatwine and Eusebius, whose combined Latin enigmata make another hundred-piece collection) to follow in his footsteps, and they are said to have influenced the vernacular Old English riddles of the Exeter Book.
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