Tag Archives: Luigi Serafini

Twist

The answer to this stanza riddle is the word eolhx, meaning unclear. We know this is the name of the rune because this word appears in the only copy we have of the Rune Poem, printed in 1705 from the only surviving manuscript copy, which burned to ashes in a fire 26 years later. Was the word eolhx included in the burnt manuscript? We’ll never know.

Eolhx appears nowhere else in Old English writing, so whatever it means, we have no clues apart from its Rune Poem stanza riddle. What is this word eolhx? There are two compound words that begin with the same letters as eolhx, eolh, we can look at them: eolhsand (amber) and eolhstede (a shelter or a temple). Sand means sand or gravel and stede is a place, a site for something, or to stand, a stand. Eolh must be something valuable; amber was … More

X≠Y≠Z: What is that?

Y:  That one on the left looks dangerous.

X:  The one on the right looks more joyful, but it’s a moody joy.

Y:  Moody. Who are they? They’re staring and it’s creeping me out.

X:  No, look, it’s fish.

Y:  Is that fish?

Z:  It’s something.

X:  They can’t see us, those aren’t eyes.

Y:  Aren’t they?

X:  Oh wait, they’re reacting to us. Look, that one is scowling.

Y:  Stop pointing at it.

X:  Now this one is scowling, look at its eyebrows. Fins.

Y:  Don’t point!  Those are eyes and they can definitely see us.

Z:  They aren’t paying attention to us at all. Think about a fish in a pond. A bunch of them. Carp.

Y:  That’s not a carp. That’s a face.

Z:  Face fish. Whatever. There they are in the pond, just beyond the surface of the water, we are inches from them, looking in, and they don’t … More