A 1,000-year-old riddle about a thief that eats words, not food
Riddle 47 in the Exeter Book, compiled around 960-990 AD, describes a strange thief: it swallows a man's proud, carefully-made speech whole in total darkness, and comes away no wiser for having 'eaten' it. What is it?
Reveal the answer
A bookworm — the larva of a moth or beetle that tunnels through the pages of a manuscript. The riddle's joke is that literally consuming language teaches the worm nothing. The Exeter Book is the largest surviving collection of Old English poetry and riddles, held at Exeter Cathedral.
— Anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet(s), The Exeter Book — Compiled c. 960-990 AD