ABSTRACT

In this essay, I read two suggestive Exeter Riddles, 44 (“Key/Phallus”) and 62 (“Borer/Poker/Phallus”), which are connected though their use of the figure of a detached penis, in order to counter conventional interpretations that claim containment of the dangerous eroticism with a safe solution. I argue that the separable phalluses in motion in the two Old English enigmas communicate the instability and reversibility of the master/servant relations; the existence of holes in our knowledge as both pleasurable and threatening possibilities; the intertwining of the erotic and non-erotic in the language; and the implication of the reader in the power games set up by the texts. After comparing instances of penile detachment and proliferation in two fabliaux, Le Fevre de Creil [The Blacksmith of Creil] and Jean Bodel’s Le Sohait des Vez [The Dream of Cocks], I conclude that Exeter Riddles 44 and 62 emerge as less graphic than the late-medieval French comic narratives, but also less restrictive in envisioning the varied forms of human sexuality.

摘要

在这篇文章中，我读了两个有启发性的埃克塞特谜语，44（“钥匙/阴茎”）和 62（“钻心者/扑克/阴茎”），它们通过使用分离的阴茎形状而联系起来，以对抗传统的声称用安全解决方案遏制危险色情的解释。我认为，在两个古英语之谜中，运动中的可分离阳具传达了主人/仆人关系的不稳定性和可逆性；我们知识中存在的漏洞既令人愉快又具有威胁性；语言中色情和非色情的交织；以及读者在文本设置的权力游戏中的含义。在比较了Le Fevre de Creil 的两个 fabliaux 中阴茎脱离和增殖的实例后[ The Blacksmith of Creil] 和让·博德尔的Le Sohait des Vez [公鸡之梦]，我得出的结论是，埃克塞特谜语 44 和 62 不像中世纪晚期的法国漫画叙事那样生动，但在想象人类性行为的各种形式方面也没有那么严格。