Spur, A New Solution to Exeter Book Riddle 62

Riddle 62 is one of a handful of erotic riddles uniquely preserved in the late tenth-century Exeter Book of Old English verse (Exeter Cathedral Library, MS. 3501). The poems in this group make use of humorous double entendre, whereby the subject to be guessed is ambiguously described in terms of a sexual act or organ (often a phallus), suggesting a 'false' obscene solution alongside the 'true' innocuous one. Examples include, notably, Exeter Riddles 25 ('onion'), 44 ('key'), 45 ('dough'), 54 (traditionally 'butter churn'), 61 ('helmet'), and 63 (a drinking vessel, probably a glass beaker).