The Anglo-Saxons, and particularly their warrior elite, were very fond of riddles.

A riddle was, in essence, a competition between the person posing the riddle and those attempting to answer it, so it fit well into the competitive milieu of the king’s warband. But it was also a demonstration of wit and a chance to indulge in early examples of the enduring English love for the double entendre.

Not all riddles were filthy, but a significant sub-section of recorded riddles are – and these were riddles written down by monks. One might suspect that there were many more that the monks chose not to record.