The Exeter Book

While the trip down to Exeter was made with the intention of the family reuniting (and, apparently, sampling a range of ales in a range of pubs) I couldn't resist fitting in a bit of nerd tourism around our busy pub schedule.

Thus, my family found themselves crowded into the small and homely Exeter Cathedral Library, where can be found one of the most fascinating and priceless books of the English Language.

It is unsurprisingly, but somewhat unoriginally, named the Exeter Book - and has the finest collection of Old English verse, poems and riddles in existence. It was all written around 950 AD and only managed to survive because it was shown such little regard for about 500 years that no one got around to throwing it out.

Having studied Old English at uni, it was pretty exciting to come face to folio with a book full of Old English that I'd read in class. And unlike most other priceless manuscripts (da Vinci folios, Bodleian books, The Lindisfarne gospel, etc) it was very easily assessable. And the staff were excessively friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

So between that, and my growing fondness for the local ciders, Exeter has been good fun so far.