View source for Riddle

{{Short description|Statement with a double meaning used as a puzzle}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Oedipus and the Sphinx of Thebes, Red Figure Kylix, c. 470 BC, from Vulci, attributed to the Oedipus Painter, Vatican Museums (9665213064).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Attic red-figure kylix c. 470 BCE: Oedipus ponders the [[riddle of the Sphinx]], with the fate of Thebes at stake]]
{{Puzzles |types}}
A '''riddle''' is a [[:wikt:statement|statement]], [[question]], or [[phrase]] having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a [[puzzle]] to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in [[metaphor]]ical or [[Allegory|allegorical]] language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and ''conundra'', which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer.

[[Archer Taylor]] says that "we can probably say that riddling is a universal art" and cites riddles from hundreds of different cultures including Finnish, Hungarian, American Indian, Chinese, Russian, Dutch, and Filipino sources amongst many others.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|3}} Many riddles and riddle-themes are internationally widespread.

In the assessment of [[Elli Köngäs-Maranda]] (originally writing about [[Malaita|Malaitian]] riddles, but with an insight that has been taken up more widely), whereas [[myth]]s serve to encode and establish social norms, "riddles make a point of playing with conceptual boundaries<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lieber |first=Michael D. |date=1976 |title=Riddles, Cultural Categories, and World View |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/539692 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=89 |issue=352 |pages=255–265 |doi=10.2307/539692 |issn=0021-8715|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and crossing them for the intellectual pleasure of showing that things are not quite as stable as they seem" — though the point of doing so may still ultimately be to "play with boundaries, but ultimately to affirm them".<ref>Elli Köngäs Maranda, "Riddles and Riddling: An Introduction", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 89 (1976), 127–37 (p. 131); {{doi|10.2307/539686}}; {{JSTOR|539686}}; cf. Hannah Burrows, "Wit and Wisdom: The Worldview of the Old Norse-Icelandic Riddles and their Relationship to Eddic Poetry", in ''Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond: Poetic Variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway'', ed. by Martin Chase (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), pp. 114–35 (p. 116).</ref>

==Definitions and research==

===Etymology===
The modern English word ''riddle'' shares its origin with the word ''read'', both stemming from the [[Proto-Germanic language|Common Germanic]] verb [[Linguistic reconstruction|*]]''rēdaną'', which meant 'to interpret, guess'. From this verb came the [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] noun *''rādislī'', literally meaning 'thing to be guessed, thing to be interpreted'. From this comes Dutch ''raadsel'', German ''Rätsel'', and [[Old English]] *''rǣdels'', the latter of which became modern English ''riddle''.<ref>"[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/165631 Riddle, n. 1]", ''Oxford English Dictionary Online'', 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).</ref>

===Definitions===

Defining riddles precisely is hard and has attracted a fair amount of scholarly debate. The first major modern attempt to define the riddle in modern Western scholarship was by [[Robert Petsch]] in 1899,<ref>[[Robert Petsch|Petsch, Robert]]. "Neue Beitrëge zur Kenntnis des Volksrätsels", ''Palaestra'', 4 (1899).</ref> with another seminal contribution, inspired by [[structuralism]], by [[Robert A. Georges]] and [[Alan Dundes]] in 1963.<ref name="Georges and Dundes">Georges, Robert A.; Dundes, Alan. "Towards a Structural Definition of the Riddle", ''Journal of American Folklore'', 76(300) (1963), 111–18 {{doi|10.2307/538610}}, {{JSTOR|538610}}. Reprinted in Alan Dundes, ''Analytic Essays in Folklore'' (The Hague: Mouton, 1975), pp. 95–102.</ref> Georges and Dundes suggested that "a riddle is a traditional verbal expression which contains one or more descriptive elements, a pair of which may be in opposition; the referent of the elements is to be guessed".<ref name="Georges and Dundes"/> There are many possible sub-sets of the riddle, including [[charades]], [[droodles]], and some [[Riddle joke|jokes]].

In some traditions and contexts, riddles may overlap with [[proverb]]s.<ref>John C. Messenger, Jr. 1960. "Anang Proverb-Riddles". ''The Journal of American Folklore'' Vol. 73, No. 289: pp. 225–235. {{doi|10.2307/537975}}. {{JSTOR|537975}}.</ref><ref>Finnegan, Ruth. ''Oral Literature in Africa''. The Saylor Foundation, 1982. p.&nbsp;418.</ref><ref>Umoh, S. J. 2007. "The Ibibio Proverb—Riddles and Language Pedagogy". ''International Journal of Linguistics and Communication'' 11(2), 8–13.</ref> For example, the Russian phrase "Nothing hurts it, but it groans all the time" can be deployed as a proverb (when its referent is a hypochondriac) or as a riddle (when its referent is a pig).<ref>Alan Dundes, "On the Structure of the Proverb", in ''Analytic Essays in Folklore'', ed. by Richard Dorson (The Hague: Mouton, 1975), pp. 103–8.</ref>

===Research===

Much academic research on riddles has focused on collecting, cataloguing, defining, and typologising riddles. Key work on cataloguing and typologising riddles was published by [[Antti Aarne]] in 1918–20,<ref name="ReferenceA">Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20).</ref> and by [[Archer Taylor]].<ref>Archer Taylor, ''A Bibliography of Riddles'', Folklore Fellows Communications, 126 (Helsinki, 1939).</ref> In the case of ancient riddles recorded without solutions, considerable scholarly energy also goes into proposing and debating solutions.<ref>E.g. Patrick J. Murphy, ''Unriddling the Exteter Riddles'' (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011).</ref>

Whereas previously researchers had tended to take riddles out of their social performance contexts, the rise of [[anthropology]] in the post-War period encouraged more researchers to study the social role of riddles and riddling,<ref>E.g. David Evans, "Riddling and the Structure of Context", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 89 (1976), 166–88; {{doi|10.2307/539688}}; {{JSTOR|539688}}; Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj, ''[http://oa.finlit.fi/site/books/detail/12/riddles/ Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre]'', Studia Fennica, Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), {{doi|10.21435/sff.10}}.</ref> highlighting their role of re-orienting reality in the face of fear and anxiety.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boryslawski |first=Rafal |date=2019 |editor-last=Wehlau |editor-first=Ruth |title=Into the Darkness First: Neoplatonism And Neurosis In Old English Wisdom Poetry |url=https://www.academia.edu/40163906/Into_the_Darkness_First_Neoplatonism_And_Neurosis_In_Old_English_Wisdom_Poetry |journal=Darkness, Depression and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England}}</ref> However, wide-ranging studies of riddles have tended to be limited to Western countries, with Asian and African riddles being relatively neglected.<ref>A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, ''Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry'' (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), 14–18.</ref>

Riddles have also attracted linguists, often studying riddles from the point of view of [[semiotics]];<ref>Elli Köngäs Maranda, "Riddles and Riddling: An Introduction", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 89 (1976), 127–37 (pp. 135–37); {{doi|10.2307/539686}}; {{JSTOR|539686}}.</ref><ref>Claudia Schittek, ''Die Sprach- und Erkenntnisformen der Rätsel'' (Stuttgart: M und P, Verlag für Wissenschaft und Forschung, 1991): {{ISBN|978-3-476-45007-4}}; {{doi|10.1007/978-3-476-04165-4}}.</ref> meanwhile, the twenty-first century has seen the rise of extensive work on medieval European riddles from the point of view of [[eco-criticism]], exploring how riddles can inform us about people's conceptualisation and exploration of their environment.<ref>Helen Price, ‘Human and NonHuman in Anglo-Saxon and British Postwar Poetry: Reshaping Literary Ecology’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 2013).</ref><ref>Mercedes Salvador-Bello, ''Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata'', Medieval European Studies, 17 (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2015).</ref><ref>Corinne Dale, ''The Natural World in the Exeter Book Riddles'' (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2017).</ref><ref>James Paz, ''Nonhuman Voices in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Material Culture'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017).</ref><ref>Erin Sebo, ''In Enigmate: The History of a Riddle, 400–1500'' (Dublin: Four Courts, 2018).</ref>

==International riddles==
[[File:Faroe stamp 389 the tree of the year.jpg|right|thumb|Tree of the year – a [[Faroe Islands|Faroese]] stamp depicting a traditional Faroese version of the [[year-riddle]].]]
Many riddles appear in similar form across many countries, and often continents. Borrowing of riddles happens both on a local scale, and across great distances. Kofi Dorvlo gives an example of a riddle that has been borrowed from the [[Ewe language]] by speakers of the neighboring [[Logba language]]: "This woman has not been to the riverside for water, but there is water in her tank". The answer is "a coconut".<ref>Dorvlo, Kofi. "Ewe borrowings into Logba." ''International Journal of Bilingualism'' 18.4 (2014): 428-446.</ref> On a much wider scale, the [[Riddle of the Sphinx]] has also been documented in the [[Marshall Islands]], possibly carried there by Western contacts in the last two centuries.<ref>p. 266.  Davenport, William. 1952. Fourteen Marshallese Riddles. ''The Journal of American Folklore'' Vol. 65, No. 257, pp. 265-266.</ref>

Key examples of internationally widespread riddles follow, based on the classic (European-focused) study by [[Antti Aarne]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

=== Writing-riddle ===
The basic form of the [[writing-riddle]] is 'White field, black seeds', where the field is a page and the seeds are letters.<ref>Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20), I 35–73.</ref> An example is the eighth- or ninth-century [[Veronese Riddle]]:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|it|Se pareba boves
alba pratalia araba
albo versorio teneba
negro semen seminaba}}
|
In front of him (he) led oxen
White fields (he) ploughed
A white plough (he) held
A black seed (he) sowed.}}
Here, the oxen are the scribe's finger(s) and thumb, and the plough is the pen. Among literary riddles, riddles on the pen and other writing equipment are particularly widespread.<ref name=Powers>Luke Powers, "Tests for True Wit: Jonathan Swift's Pen and Ink Riddles", ''South Central Review'', 7.4 (Winter 1990), 40–52; {{doi|10.2307/3189093}}. {{JSTOR|3189093}}.</ref><ref>Helen Price, ''[http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6607/ Human and NonHuman in Anglo-Saxon and British Postwar Poetry: Reshaping Literary Ecology]'' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Leeds, 2013), pp. 92–128.</ref>

=== Year-riddle ===
The [[year-riddle]] is found across Eurasia.<ref>Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20), I 74–178.</ref> For example, a riddle in the [[Sanskrit]] ''[[Rig Veda]]'', from around 1500–1000 BCE, describes a 'twelve-spoked wheel, upon which stand 720 sons of one birth' (i.e. the twelve months of the year, which together supposedly have 360 days and 360 nights).<ref>Frederick Tupper, Jr, "Originals and Analogues of the Exeter Book Riddles", ''Modern Language Notes'', 18.4 (April 1903), 97–106 (p. 102). {{JSTOR|2917102}}.</ref>

=== Person-riddle ===
The most famous example of this type is the [[riddle of the Sphinx]]. This Estonian example shows the pattern:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|et|Hommikul käib nelja,
lõuna-ajal kahe,
õhtul kolme jalaga}}
|
It goes in the morning on four feet,
at lunch-time on two,
at evening on three<ref>Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20), II 3–23 (p. 12).</ref>}}
The riddle describes a crawling baby, a standing person, and an old person with a walking stick.

=== Two-legs, three-legs, and four-legs ===
This type includes riddles along the lines of this German example:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|de|Zweibein sass auf Dreibein und ass Einbein.
Da kam Vierbein und nahm Zweibein das Einbein.
Da nahm Zweibein Dreibein und schlug damit Vierbein,
dass Vierbein Einbein fallen liess.}}
|
Two-legs sat on Three-legs and ate One-leg.
Then Four-legs came and took One-leg from Two-legs.
Then Two-legs took Three-legs and with it struck Four-legs,
so that Four-legs let One-leg go.<ref>Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20), II 24–59 (p. 24).</ref>}}
The conceit here is that Two-legs is a person, Three-legs is a three-legged stool, Four-legs is a dog, and One-leg is a ham hock.

=== Four Hang; Two Point the Way ===
An example of [[Four Hang; Two Point the Way]], to which the pre-eminent solution is 'cow'<ref>Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20), II 60–172.</ref> is given here in thirteenth-century Icelandic form:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|non|Fjórir hanga,
fjórir ganga,
tveir veg vísa,
tveir hundum varða,
einn eptir drallar
ok jafnan heldr saurugr.
Heiðrekr konungr,
hyggðu at gátu!}}
|
Four are hanging,
Four are walking,
Two point the way out,
Two ward the dogs off,
One ever dirty
Dangles behind it.
This riddle ponder
O prince Heidrek!<ref>''[http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/The%20Saga%20Of%20King%20Heidrek%20The%20Wise.pdf The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise]'', trans. by Christopher Tolkien (London: Nelson, 1960), p. 43 [no. 70].</ref>}}
The cow has four teats, four legs, two horns, two back legs, and one tail.

=== Featherless bird-riddle ===
The [[featherless bird-riddle]] is best known in Central Europe.<ref>Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20), III 3–48.</ref> An English version is:
<poem style="margin-left:2em">
White bird featherless
Flew from Paradise,
Perched upon the castle wall;
Up came Lord John landless,
Took it up handless,
And rode away horseless to the King's white hall.<ref>Jón Árnason, ''[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/IcelOnline.JonArnGatur Íslenzkar gátur, skemtanir, vikivakar og Þulur, I]'' (Kaupmannahöfn: Hið Íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1887), http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/IcelOnline/IcelOnline-idx?type=HTML&rgn=DIV2&byte=187436.</ref></poem>
Here, a snowflake falls from the sky, and is blown off by the wind.

==Riddle-traditions by region==
The riddle was at times a prominent literary form in the ancient and medieval world, so riddles are extensively, if patchily, attested in our written records from these periods. More recently, riddles have been collected from oral tradition by scholars in many parts of the world.

===Babylon===

According to Archer Taylor, "the oldest recorded riddles are [[Babylon]]ian school texts which show no literary polish". The answers to the riddles are not preserved; the riddles include "my knees hasten, my feet do not rest, a shepherd without pity drives me to pasture" (a river? A rowboat?); "you went and took the enemy's property; the enemy came and took your property" (a weaving shuttle?); "who becomes pregnant without conceiving, who becomes fat without eating?" (a raincloud?). These may be riddles from oral tradition that a teacher has put into a schoolbook.<ref>Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 12–13, citing M. Jaeger, "Assyrische Räthsel und Sprichwörter", ''Beiträge zur Assyriologie'', 2 (1894), 274–305.</ref>

=== South Asia ===
{{Main|Riddles (South Asia)}}
It is thought that the world's earliest surviving poetic riddles survive in the [[Sanskrit]] ''[[Rigveda]]''.<ref>A. A. Seyeb-Gohrab, ''Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry'' (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), 14.</ref><ref>L. Sternbach, ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.142457 Indian Riddles: A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Sanskrit Literature]'', Vishveshvaranand Indological Series, 67/Vishveshvaranand Institute Publications, 632 (Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, 1975).</ref> [[s:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Hymn 164]] of the [[Mandala 1|first book]] of the ''Rigveda'' can be understood to comprise a series of riddles or enigmas<ref>Martin Haug, "Vedische Räthselfragen und Räthselsprüche (Uebersetzung und Erklärung von Rigv. 1, 164)", ''Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen und historischen Classe der Köngl. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München'' (1875), 457–515.</ref> which are now obscure but may have been an enigmatic exposition of the [[Pravargya|pravargya ritual]].<ref>Jan E. M. Houben, "The Ritual Pragmatics of a Vedic Hymn: The 'Riddle Hymn' and the Pravargya Ritual", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', 120 (2000), 499–536 (English translation pp. 533–36), {{doi|10.2307/606614}}. {{JSTOR|606614}}.</ref> These riddles overlap in significant part with a collection of forty-seven in the [[Atharvaveda]]; riddles also appear elsewhere in [[Vedas|Vedic texts]].<ref>Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 13–17.</ref><ref>See also J. Huizinga, ''Homo Ludens: Proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur'' (Haarlem, 1940), pp. 154ff.</ref> Taylor cited the following example: '"Who moves in the air? Who makes a noise on seeing a thief? Who is the enemy of lotuses? Who is the climax of fury?" The answers to the first three questions, when combined in the manner of a charade, yield the answer to the fourth question. The first answer is bird (''vi''), the second dog (''śvā''), the third sun (''mitra''), and the whole is [[Vishvamitra]], [[Rama]]'s first teacher and counselor and a man noted for his outbursts of rage'.<ref>Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 16–17, citing A. Führer, "Sanskrit-Räthsel", ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft'', 39 (1885), 99–100.</ref>

Accordingly, riddles are treated in early studies of Sanskrit poetry such as [[Daṇḍin]]'s seventh- or eighth-century ''[[Kavyadarsha|Kāvyādarśa]]''.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Prakash Vatuk | first1 = Ved | year = 1969 | title = Amir Khusro and Indian Riddle Tradition | journal = The Journal of American Folklore | volume = 82 | issue = 324 | pages = 142–54 [142] | doi = 10.2307/539075 | jstor = 539075}} citing Durga Bhagwat, ''The Riddle in Indian Life, Lore and Literature'' (Bombay, 1965), 5-9.</ref>

Early narrative literature also sometimes includes riddles, prominently the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', which for example contains the [[Yaksha Prashna]], a series of riddles posed by a nature-spirit (''[[yaksha]]'') to [[Yudhishthira]].<ref name="dx.doi.org">Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj, ''Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre'', Studia Fennica, Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), pp. 11–12; {{doi|10.21435/sff.10}}.</ref>

The first riddle collection in a medieval Indic language is traditionally thought to be the [[riddles of Amir Khusrow]] (1253–1325), which are written in [[Hindustani language|Hindawi]], in verse, in the [[mātrika metre]].<ref>Annemarie Schimmel, ''Classical Urdu Literature from the Beginning to Iqbāl'', A History of Indian Literature, 8 (Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden, 1975), p. 129.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Prakash Vatuk | first1 = Ved | year = 1969 | title = Amir Khusro and Indian Riddle Tradition | journal = The Journal of American Folklore | volume = 82 | issue = 324 | pages = 142–54 [144, 143] | doi = 10.2307/539075 | jstor = 539075}}</ref>

As of the 1970s, folklorists had not undertaken extensive collecting of riddles in India, but riddling was known to be thriving as a form of folk-literature, sometimes in verse.<ref>Alan Dundes and Ved Prakash Vatuk, '[http://www.jstor.org/stable/1177505 Some Characteristic Meters of Hindi Riddle Prosody]', ''Asian Folklore Studies'', 33.1 (1974), 85-153.</ref> Riddles have also been collected in Tamil.<ref name="Riddle">{{cite web |author=Shanthi |first=G. |date=December 1993 |title=Tamil riddles |url=https://www.riddlepedia.com/tamil-riddles/ |access-date=4 December 2014 |publisher=International Institute of Tamil Studies}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Dieter B. Kapp|date=1994|title=A Collection of Jaffna Tamil Riddles from Oral Tradition|url=http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1820|journal=Asian Folklore Studies|publisher=Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture|volume=53|issue=1|pages=125–149|doi=10.2307/1178562|jstor=1178562|access-date=4 December 2014|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Hebrew, Arabic and Persian===
{{Main|Riddles (Arabic)|Riddles (Persian)|Riddles (Hebrew)}}
[[File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 146.jpg|thumb|Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn's 1638 ''The Wedding of Samson'', depicting Samson (right of centre) posing [[Samson's riddle]]]]
While riddles are not numerous in the Bible, they are present, most famously in [[Samson's riddle]] in Judges xiv.14, but also in I Kings 10:1–13 (where the [[Queen of Sheba]] tests [[Solomon]]'s wisdom), and in the [[Talmud]].<ref name="Joseph Jacobs 1907">Joseph Jacobs, "Riddle", in ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'', ed. by Isidore Singer (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1907), s.v.</ref> [[Sirach]] also mentions riddles as a popular dinner pastime, while the Aramaic ''[[Story of Ahikar]]'' contains a long section of proverbial wisdom that in some versions also contains riddles.<ref>Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 41–42.</ref> Otherwise, riddles are sparse in ancient Semitic writing.

In the medieval period, however, verse riddles, alongside other puzzles and conundra, became a significant literary form in the Arabic-speaking world,<ref>G. J. H. van Gelder, "lughz", in ''Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature'', ed. by Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey, 2 vols (London: Routledge, 1998), II 479.</ref> and accordingly in Islamic Persian culture<ref>A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, ''Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry'' (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010).</ref> and in Hebrew — particularly in [[Al-Andalus]].<ref>See further Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 35–37.</ref> Since early Arabic and Persian poetry often features rich, metaphorical description, and [[ekphrasis]], there is a natural overlap in style and approach between poetry generally and riddles specifically; literary riddles are therefore often a subset of the descriptive poetic form known in both traditions as ''[[wasf]]''. Riddles are attested in anthologies of poetry and in prosimetrical portrayals of riddle-contests in Arabic ''[[maqāmāt]]'' and in Persian epics such as the ''[[Shahnameh]]''. Meanwhile, in Hebrew, [[Dunash ben Labrat]] (920–990), credited with transposing Arabic metres into Hebrew, composed a number of riddles, mostly apparently inspired by folk-riddles.<ref>Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 33–35, citing Nehemya Aluny, "Ten Dunash Ben Labrat's Riddles", ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'', New Series, 36 (1945), 141–46, {{doi|10.2307/1452496}}, {{JSTOR|1452496}}.</ref> Other Hebrew-writing exponents included [[Moses ibn Ezra]], [[Yehuda Alharizi]], [[Judah Halevi]], [[Immanuel the Roman]], and [[Israel Onceneyra]].<ref name="Joseph Jacobs 1907" />

In both Arabic and Persian, riddles seem to have become increasingly scholarly in style over time, increasingly emphasising riddles and puzzles in which the interpreter has to resolve clues to letters and numbers to put together the word which is the riddle's solution.

Riddles have been collected by modern scholars throughout the Arabic-speaking world.<ref>E.g. Charles T. Scott, ''Persian and Arabic Riddles: A Language-Centered Approach to Genre Definition'' (Bloomington, 1965).</ref>

=== Europe ===

==== Greek ====
{{Main|Riddles (Greek)}}
Riddles are known to have been popular in Greece in Hellenistic times, and possibly before; they were prominent among the entertainments and challenges presented at [[symposium|symposia]].<ref name="Gods Cannot Tell Lies' 2013 pp. 121">Frederick G. Naerebout and Kim Beerden, {{"'}}Gods Cannot Tell Lies': Riddling and Ancient Greek Divination", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 121–47 (p. 140).</ref> Oracles were also represented as speaking in often riddlic language.<ref>Frederick G. Naerebout and Kim Beerden, {{"'}}Gods Cannot Tell Lies': Riddling and Ancient Greek Divination", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 121–47.</ref> However, the first significant corpus of Greek riddles survives in an anthology of earlier material known as the ''[[Greek Anthology]]'', which contains about 50 verse riddles,<ref>Christine Luz, "What has it got in its Pocketses? Or, What Makes a Riddle a Riddle?", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 83–99.</ref> probably put into its present form by [[Constantine Cephalas]], working in the tenth century CE.<ref>Jan Kwapisz, "Were there Hellenistic Riddle Books?", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 148–67 (p. 148).</ref> Most surviving ancient Greek riddles are in verse.<ref>Christine Luz, "What has it got in its Pocketses? Or, What Makes a Riddle a Riddle?", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 83–99 (p. 84).</ref> In the second chapter of Book III of Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', the philosopher stated that "good riddles do, in general, provide us with satisfactory metaphors: for metaphors imply riddles, and therefore a good riddle can furnish a good metaphor."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rhetoric.eserver.org/aristotle/rhet3-2.html|title=Aristotle's Rhetoric Book III, Chapter 2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005073528/http://rhetoric.eserver.org/aristotle/rhet3-2.html|archive-date=2016-10-05|access-date=2016-07-22}}</ref>

Literary riddles were also composed in [[Byzantium]], from perhaps the tenth century with the work of [[John Geometres]], into the fifteenth century, along with a neo-Byzantine revival in around the early eighteenth century. There was a particular peak around the long twelfth century.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Milovanović-Barham|first1=Čelica|year=1993|title=Aldhelm's ''Enigmata'' and Byzantine Riddles|journal=Anglo-Saxon England|volume=22|pages=51–64 [pp. 53–54, esp. n. 11]|doi=10.1017/S0263675100004300}}</ref>

==== Latin and romance ====
Two Latin riddles are preserved as graffiti in the Basilica at [[Pompeii]].<ref>Rebcca R. Benefiel, "Magic Squares, Alphabet Jumbles, Riddles and More: The Culture of Word-Games among the Graffiti of Pompeii", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 65–79 (pp. 72–75).</ref> The pre-eminent collection of ancient Latin riddles is a collection of 100 hexametrical riddles by [[Symphosius]] which were influential on later medieval Latin writers. The [[Berne Riddles|Bern Riddles]], a collection of Latin riddles clearly modelled on Symphosius, were composed in the early seventh century by an unknown author, perhaps in northern Italy. Symphosius's collection also inspired a number of [[Anglo-Saxon riddles|Anglo-Saxon riddlers]] who wrote in Latin.<ref>Andrew Welsh, "Riddle" in ''Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs'', ed. by Carl Lindahl, John McNamara and John Lindow, 2 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000), II 824–32 (pp. 826–27).</ref> They remained influential in medieval Castilian tradition, being the basis for the second set of riddles in the thirteenth-century ''[[Libro de Apolonio]]'', posed by Apolonio's daughter Tarsiana to her father.<ref>Doris Clark, "Tarsiana's Riddles in the ''LdA''", in ''Medieval Hispanic Studies Presented to Rita Hamilton'', ed. by Alan D. Deyermond (Támesis, 1976), pp. 31–43, cited by Harriet Goldberg, "Riddles and Enigmas in Medieval Castilian Literature", ''Romance Philology'', 36(2) (1982), 209–21 (p. 216 n. 22).</ref>

The perhaps eighth- or ninth-century [[Veronese Riddle]] is a key witness to the linguistic transition from Latin to Romance, but riddles are otherwise rare in medieval romance languages. However, in the early modern period, printed riddle collections were published in French, including the ''[[Adevineaux amoureux]]'' (printed in Bruges by Colard Mansion around 1479); and ''Demandes joyeuses en maniere de quolibets'', the basis for [[Wynkyn de Worde]]'s 1511 ''[[Demaundes Joyous]]''.<ref>Andrew Welsh, "Riddle" in ''Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs'', ed. by Carl Lindahl, John McNamara and John Lindow, 2 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000), II 824-32 (p. 830).</ref>

==== The Germanic-speaking world ====
{{Main|Anglo-Saxon riddles|Riddles (Scandinavian)}}
[[File:Exeter Book.jpg|thumb|The Exeter Book: the principal manuscript of medieval Germanic-language riddles.]]Riddles survive only fragmentarily in [[Old High German]]: three, very short, possible examples exist in manuscripts from the [[Monastery of St Gallen]], but, while certainly cryptic,<ref>Tomas Tomasek, ''Das deutsche Rätsel im Mittelalter'', Hermaea germanistische Forschungen, neue Folge, 69 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1994), pp. 158–74.</ref> they are not necessarily riddles in a strict sense.<ref>Christopher Wells, "The Shorter German Verse Texts", in ''German Literature of the Early Middle Ages'', ed. by Brian Murdoch, Camden House History of German Literature, 2 (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004), pp. 157–200 (pp. 181–82).</ref> About 150 survive in [[Middle High German]], mostly quoted in other literary contexts.<ref>Jeffrey Scott Love, ''The Reception of Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century'', Münchner Nordistische Studien, 14 (München: Herbert Utz Verlag, 2013), p. 198.</ref><ref>Tomas Tomasek, ''Das deutsche Rätsel im Mittelalter'', Hermea: Germanistische Forschungen, Neue Folge, 69 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1994).</ref><ref>On German riddles, see further Mathilde Hain, ''Rätsel'', Sammlung Metzler, 53. Realienbücher für Germanisten. Abt. E: Poetik (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1966).</ref> Likewise, riddles are rare in [[Old Norse]]: almost all occur in one section of ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks]]'', in which the god [[Óðinn]] propounds around 37 riddles (depending on the manuscript).<ref>[[Alaric Hall]], "Changing Style and Changing Meaning: Icelandic Historiography and the Medieval Redactions of Heiðreks saga", ''Scandinavian Studies'', 77 (2005), 1–30, at pp. 9–10. {{JSTOR|40920553}}</ref> These riddles do, however, provide insights into [[Norse mythology]], medieval Scandinavian social norms, and rarely attested poetic forms.<ref>Burrows, Hannah, "Wit and Wisdom: The Worldview of the Old Norse-Icelandic Riddles and their Relationship to Eddic Poetry", in ''Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond: Poetic Variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway'', ed. by Martin Chase (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 114–35; Hannah Burrows, "Enigma Variations: ''Hervarar saga''{{'}}s Wave-Riddles and Supernatural Women in Old Norse Poetic Tradition", ''JEGP: Journal of English and Germanic Philology'', 112 (2013), 194–216, {{doi|10.5406/jenglgermphil.112.2.0194}}, {{JSTOR|10.5406/jenglgermphil.112.2.0194}}.</ref>

By contrast, verse riddles were prominent in [[Anglo-Saxons|early medieval England]], following the seminal composition of [[Riddles of Aldhelm|one hundred and one riddles]] by [[Aldhelm]] (c. 639–709), written in Latin and inspired by the fourth- or fifth-century Latin poet [[Symphosius]]. Aldhelm was followed by a number of other Anglo-Saxons writing riddles in Latin. This prestigious literary heritage contextualises the survival of nearly one hundred riddles in the tenth-century [[Exeter Book]], one of the main surviving collections of [[Old English]] verse. The riddles in this book vary in subject matter from ribald innuendo to theological sophistication. Three, [[Exeter Book Riddle 35]] and [[De creatura|Riddles 40/66]], are in origin translations of riddles by Aldhelm (and Riddle 35 the only Old English riddle to be attested in another manuscript besides the Exeter Book). Unlike the pithy three-line riddles of Symphosius, the Old English riddles tend to be discursive, often musing on complex processes of manufacture when describing artefacts such as mead ([[Exeter Book Riddle 27]]) or a reed-pen or -pipe ([[Exeter Book Riddle 60]]). They are noted for providing perspectives on the world which give voice to actors which tend not to appear in Old English poetry, ranging from female slaves to animals and plants. In addition, they often subvert the conventions of Old English heroic and religious poetry.

While medieval records of Germanic-language riddles are patchy, with the advent of print in the West, collections of riddles and similar kinds of questions began to be published. A large number of riddle collections were printed in the German-speaking world and, partly under German influence, in Scandinavia.<ref>Frauke Rademann-Veith, ''Die skandinavischen Rätselbücher auf der Grundlage der deutschen Rätselbuch-Traditionen (1540–1805)'' (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2010) (PhD thesis, Münster University, 2004).</ref> Riddles were evidently hugely popular in Germany: a recent research project uncovered more than 100,000 early modern German riddles, with the most important collection being that ''Strassburger Rätselbuch'', first published around 1500 and many times reprinted.<ref>''Strassburger Räthselbuch: Die erste zu Strassburg ums Jahr 1505 gedruckte deutsche Räthselsammlung'', ed. by A. F. Butsch (Straßburg, 1876).</ref> This is one of the most famous riddles of that time:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|de|Es kam ein Vogel federlos,
saß auf dem Baume blattlos, 
da kam die Jungfer mundlos
und fraß den Vogel federlos
von dem Baume blattlos.}}
|
There came a bird featherless
sat on the trees leafless
There came a maiden speechless
And ate the bird featherless
From off the tree leafless.}}
That is, "the snow (featherless bird) lies on a bare tree in winter (leafless tree), and the sun (speechless maiden) causes the snow to melt (ate the featherless bird)".<ref>Dominik Landwehr, "Review of ''Simpliciana: Schriften der Grimmelshausen Gesellschaft 2014''", in ''Cryptologia'', 41(1) (2017), 92–96. {{doi|10.1080/01611194.2016.1236628}}.</ref>

Likewise, early modern English-speakers published printed riddle collections, such as the 1598 ''Riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus'', which includes for example the following riddle:<poem style="margin-left:2em">
First I was small, and round like a pearl;
Then long and slender, as brave as an earl;
Since, like an hermit, I lived in a cell,
And now, like a rogue, in the wide world I dwell.<ref>Archer Taylor, ''The Literary Riddle before 1600'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948), p. 2.</ref>
</poem>
After the early Middle Ages, the riddle was seldom used as a literary form in English. Tellingly, while [[Jonathan Swift]] composed at least eight verse riddles on themes such as a pen, gold, and the privy, this was seen as a lapse in taste by many of his contemporaries.<ref name="Powers" /><ref>Gregg A. Hecimovich, ''Puzzling the Reader: Riddles in Nineteenth-century British Literature'' (New York: Peter Lang, 2008).</ref> However, although riddles are seldom used today as a literary form in their own right, they have arguably influenced the approach to poetry of a number of twentieth-century poets, such as [[Francis Ponge]], [[Wallace Stevens]], [[Richard Wilbur]], [[Rainer M. Rilke]], and [[Henrikas Radauskas]].<ref>Živilė Gimbutas, ''The Riddle in the Poem'' (Dallas: University Press of America, 2004).</ref> The famed [[Transcendentalist]] [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] once wrote "All is a riddle, and the key to a riddle&nbsp;... is another riddle".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/90/0609.html#note0609.8|title=IX. Illusions. Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1904. The Complete Works|website=www.bartleby.com|date=11 October 2022 }}</ref>

Riddles continued to flourish until recently as an oral form of entertainment, however; the seminal collection of Anglophone riddles from the early modern period through to the twentieth century is [[Archer Taylor]]'s.<ref name=":1">Taylor, Archer, ''English Riddles from Oral Tradition'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951).</ref> Riddles are, for example, prominent in some early-modern [[ballad]]s collected from oral tradition. Some of those included in the [[Child Ballads]] are "[[Riddles Wisely Expounded]]" (Child 1), "[[The Elfin Knight]]" (Child 2), "[[King John and the Bishop]]" (Child 45), "[[Captain Wedderburn's Courtship]]" (Child 46), and "[[Proud Lady Margaret]]" (Child 47).<ref>Andrew Welsh, "Riddle" in ''Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs'', ed. by Carl Lindahl, John McNamara and John Lindow, 2 vols (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000), II 824-32 (p. 829).</ref> Contemporary English-language riddles typically use [[pun]]s and [[double entendre]]s for humorous effect,{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} rather than to puzzle the butt of the [[joke]], as in "Why is six afraid of seven?" "Because seven eight nine (eight can be replaced with ate)." These riddles are now mostly children's [[humour]] and [[game]]s rather than literary compositions.

Some riddles are composed of foreign words and play on similar sounds, as in:

:''"There were two cats, one two three cat and un deux trois cat. They had a swimming race from England to France. Who won?"''
:''"One two three cat, because un deux trois quatre cinq (un deux trois cat sank)."''

This plays on the fact that the French words for four and five are pronounced similarly to the English words ''cat'' and ''sank''.

====The Celtic-speaking world====

Few riddles are attested in medieval Celtic languages, though this depends on how narrowly a riddle is defined; some early medieval Welsh and Irish juridical texts have been read as being riddles.<ref>Robin Chapman Stacey, 'Instructional Riddles in Welsh Law', in ''Heroic Poets and Poetic Heroes in Celtic Tradition: A Festschrift for Patrick K. Ford'', ed. by Josoph Falaky Nagy and Leslie Ellen Jones (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005), pp. 336-43; Robin Chapman Stacey, 'Speaking in Riddles', in ''Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: Texts and Transmission'', ed. by Próinséas Ní Chatháin (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002), pp. 243-48; Fergus Kelly, 'An Old-Irish Text on Court Procedure', ''Peritia'', 5 (1986), 74-106.</ref> One undisputed riddle is attested in medieval [[Welsh language|Welsh]], an elaborate text entitled 'Canu y Gwynt' ('song of the wind') in the fourteenth-century [[Book of Taliesin]] probably inspired by Latin riddles on the same theme. However, this record is supplemented by Latin material, apparently from a [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]] cultural background in North Britain, about [[Lailoken]]: in a twelfth-century text, Lailoken poses three riddles to his captor King Meldred.<ref>Christine Goldberg, ''Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851'', Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 35.</ref>

The earliest riddles attested in Irish are generally held to be found in a short collection from the fifteenth-century Book of Fermoy.<ref>Patrick Sims-Williams, ''Irish Influence on Medieval Welsh Literature'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 114–15.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Whitley |last=Stokes |jstor=30069786 |title=Irish Riddles |journal=The Celtic Review |volume=1 |issue=2 |year=1904 |pages=132–35 |doi=10.2307/30069786|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1449711 }}</ref> However, other forms of wisdom contest do occur in Irish literature, such as ''The Colloquy of the Two Sages'', first attested in twelfth-century manuscripts, and in one such contest, in ''[[Imthecht na Tromdaime]]'', first attested in the fifteenth century, at least one riddle is arguably posed.<ref>Christine Goldberg, ''Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851'', Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 36–37.</ref>

Even research on the post-medieval Celtic-speaking world has yielded a "comparatively meagre corpus".<ref>Patrick Sims-Williams, ''Irish Influence on Medieval Welsh Literature'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 115. Cf. Vernam Hull and Archer Taylor, ''A Collection of Welsh Riddles'', University of California Publications in Modern Philology, 26 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1942); Vernam Hull and Archer Taylor, ''A Collection of Irish Riddles'', University of California Publications: Folklore Studies, 6 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1955; Thomas Parry, {{"'}}Y Gorcheston{{'"}}, ''Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies'', 5 (1930), 138–40.</ref>

====The Finnic-speaking world====
{{Main|Riddles (Finnic)}}
The corpus of traditional riddles from the [[Finnic languages|Finnic-speaking world]] (including the modern Finland, Estonia, and parts of Western Russia) is fairly unitary, though eastern Finnish-speaking regions show particular influence of Russian Orthodox Christianity and Slavonic riddle culture. The Finnish for "riddle" is ''arvoitus'' (pl. ''arvoitukset''), related to the verb ''arvata'' ("guess").

Finnic riddles are noteworthy in relation to the rest of the world's oral riddle canon for its original imagery, their abundance of sexual riddles, and the interesting collision of influences from east and west;<ref>Leea Virtanen, "The Collecting and Study of Riddles in Finland", in ''Arvoitukset: Finnish Riddles'', ed. by Leea Virtanen, Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj and Aarre Nyman, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Toimituksia, 329 ([Helsinki]: Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1977), pp. 51–57.</ref> along with the attestation in some regions of an elaborate riddle-game.<ref name="Leea Virtanen 1977 pp. 77-89">Leea Virtanen, "On the Function of Riddles", in ''Arvoitukset: Finnish Riddles'', ed. by Leea Virtanen, Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj and Aarre Nyman, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Toimituksia, 329 ([Helsinki]: Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1977), pp. 77–89 (at 80–82).</ref> Riddles provide some of the first surviving evidence for Finnish-language literature.<ref>''Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic. An Anthology in Finnish and English'', ed. and trans. by Matti Kuusi, Keith Bosley and Michael Branch, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia, 329 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1977), pp. 33–34.</ref>

===East Asia===

====China====
{{Main|Riddles (Chinese)}}
In modern Chinese, the standard word for 'riddle' is ''mi'' (謎, literally "to bewilder"). Riddles are spoken of as having a ''mian'' (面, "surface", the question component of the riddle), and a ''di'' (底, "base", the answer component). Ancient Chinese terms for 'riddle' include ''yin'' (讔) and ''sou'' (廋), which both mean "hidden".<ref name=":0">Timothy Wai Keung Chan, 'A New Reading of an Early Medieval Riddle', ''T’oung Pao'', 99 (2013), 53–87 {{doi|10.1163/15685322-9913p0002}}.</ref>{{rp|56, 67}}

Literary riddles in China first begin to be attested in significant numbers around the second century CE.<ref>Richard C. Rudolph, "Notes on the Riddle in China", ''California Folklore Quarterly'', 1.1 (Jan. 1942), pp. 65–82 (pp. 79–81). {{JSTOR|1495728}}.</ref><ref name=":0" />{{rp|54–56}}

The Chinese riddle-tradition makes much use of visual puns on Chinese characters.<ref>Andrew H. Plaks, 'Riddle and Enigma in Chinese Civilization', in ''Untying the Knot: On Riddles and Other Enigmatic Modes'', ed. by Galit Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 225–36.</ref> One example is the riddle "千 里 会 千 金"; these characters respectively mean 'thousand kilometre meet thousand gold'.
#The first stage of solving the riddle is verbal: 
##In Chinese culture, "it is said that a good horse can run thousands of kilometers per day", so "千 里" (thousand kilometer) is resolved as "马" (horse). 
##Meanwhile, because "a daughter is very important in the family", in Chinese culture it is possible to resolve "千 金" (thousand gold) as "女" (daughter).
#The second stage of solving the riddle is visual: combining the radical "马" (horse) with the radical "女" (daughter) produces the character "妈" (mother).
Thus the answer to "thousand kilometres meet thousand gold" is "妈" (mother).<ref>Chuanqi Tan, Furu Wei, Li Dong, Weifeng Lv, and Ming Zhou, "Solving and Generating Chinese Character Riddles", ''Proceedings of the 2016 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, Austin, Texas, November 1–5, 2016'' (Association for Computational Linguistics, 2016), pp. 846–55.</ref>

The posing and solving of riddles has long been an important part of the Chinese [[Lantern Festival]].<ref>Richard C. Rudolph, "Notes on the Riddle in China", ''California Folklore Quarterly'', 1.1 (Jan. 1942), pp. 65–82 (p. 77). {{JSTOR|1495728}}.</ref> China also contributed a distinctive kind of riddle known in English as the ''[[kōan]]'' ({{zh|c=公案|p=gōng'àn}}), developed as a teaching technique in [[Zen]] [[Buddhism]] in the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907). In this tradition, the answer to the riddle is to be established through years of meditation, informed by Zen thought, as part of a process of seeking [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightenment]].<ref>Charles G. Zug III, '[https://www.jstor.org/stable/538419 The Nonrational Riddle: The Zen ''Koan'']', ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 80, no. 315 (January–March 1967), 81-88 {{doi|10.2307/538419}}.</ref>

In the twentieth century, thousands of riddles and similar enigmas have been collected, capitalising on the large number of homophones in Chinese. Examples of folk-riddles include:

* There is a small vessel filled with sauce, one vessel holding two different kinds. (Egg)
* Washing makes it more and more dirty; it is cleaner without washing. (Water)
* When you use it you throw it away, and when you do not use it you bring it back. (Anchor)<ref>Richard C. Rudolph, "Notes on the Riddle in China", ''California Folklore Quarterly'', 1.1 (Jan. 1942), pp. 65–82 (quoting pp. 74–75). {{JSTOR|1495728}}.</ref>

====The Philippines====
Quite similar to its English counterpart, the riddle in the [[Philippines]] is called ''Bugtong''.<ref>Hart, Donn V. 1964. ''Riddles in Philippine Folklore: An Anthropological Analysis.'' Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.</ref> It is traditionally used during a [[funeral wake]] together with other games such as ''[[tong-its]]'' or the more popular ''sakla''; later generations use ''Bugtong'' as a form of past time or as an activity. One peculiarity of the [[Filipino language|Filipino]] version is the way they start with the [[phrase]] ''Bugtong-bugtong'' before saying the riddle; usually it is common to create riddles that [[rhyme]].

This is an example of a ''[[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]'' ''Bugtong'':
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|tl|Bugtong-bugtong, Hindi hari, hindi pari
ang suot ay sari-sari.}}
|attr1=Sampayan|
Riddle-riddle, not a king, nor a priest,
but dresses for a feast.|attr2=[[Clothes line]]}}

Further south, in [[Sulawesi]], Indonesia, among the [[Pendau language|Pendau]], riddles are also used at funeral gatherings.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf4/quick2007riddles.pdf |chapter=Riddles of death: The structure of the ''tangke-tangke'' riddle game used at Pendau memorial services |last=Quick |first=Phil |title=SEALSXII: papers from the 13th meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2003) |editor1-first=Soichi |editor1-last=Iwasaki |editor2-first=Andrew |editor2-last=Simpaon |editor3-first=Karen |editor3-last=Adams |editor4-first=Paul |editor4-last=Sidwell |year=2007 |pages=203–212}}</ref>

===Africa===
Anthropological research in Africa has produced extensive collections of riddles over the last century or so.<ref name="jstor.org">Elli Köngäs Maranda, "Riddles and Riddling: An Introduction", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 89 (1976), 127–37 (p. 128); {{doi|10.2307/539686}}; {{JSTOR|539686}}.</ref> Riddles have been characterised as "one of the most important forms of oral art in Africa";<ref>Lyndon Harries, "The Riddle in Africa", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 84 (1971), 377–93; {{doi|10.2307/539632}}; {{JSTOR|539632}}.</ref> Hamnett analyzes African riddling from an anthropological viewpoint;<ref>Hamnett, Ian, "Ambiguity, Classification and Change: the Function of Riddles", ''Man'', 2 (1967), pp. 379–391. {{doi|10.2307/2798727}}. {{JSTOR|2798727}}</ref> Yoruba riddles have enjoyed a recent monograph study.<ref>Akíntúndé Akínyẹmí, ''Orature and Yorùbá Riddles'' (Palgrave Macmillan US, 2015), {{doi|10.1057/9781137502636}} Print {{ISBN|978-1-349-69958-2}}</ref> Wambi Cornelius Gulere wrote his doctoral project at [[Makerere University]], titled ''Riddle Performance and Societal Discourses: Lessons from [[Busoga]]''.<ref>Wambi Cornelius Gulere. 2012. ''Riddle Performance and Societal Discourses: Lessons from Busoga.'' Makerere University: PhD thesis.</ref> He argues for recognition of the importance of the riddling act, not merely gathering and studying lists of riddles. Grivas Muchineripi Kayange has seen African riddles as a window into African philosophy.<ref>Grivas Muchineripi Kayange, ''Meaning and Truth in African Philosophy: Doing African Philosophy with Language'', Philosophical Studies Series, 135 (Cham: Springer, 2018), pp. 73–88; {{ISBN|978-3-030-01961-7}}, {{doi|10.1007/978-3-030-01962-4}}.</ref>

===The Americas===
====Native American traditions====
Riddles in the Americas are of particular interest to scholarship because it was long thought that native American cultures had no autochthonous riddle traditions (as opposed to riddles inspired by European culture, as with the twenty-two [[Aztec]] riddles collected by [[Bernardino de Sahagún]] in the sixteenth century, in the famous [[Florentine codex]]).<ref>Archer Taylor, "American Indian Riddles", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 57 (no. 223) (January–March, 1944), 1–15 (pp. 1–2). {{JSTOR|53575}}.</ref><ref>Cf. Wolfgang Mieder, "Proverbs of the Native Americans; A Prize Competition", ''Western Folklore'', 48.3 (July 1989), 256–60. {{JSTOR|1499742}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Noguera|first1=Eduardo Guadalupe|last2=Pauer|first2=Paul Siliceo|date=1918|title=Adivinanzas recogidas en México|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/535060|journal=The Journal of American Folklore|volume=31|issue=122|pages=537–543|doi=10.2307/535060|jstor=535060 |issn=0021-8715|url-access=subscription}}</ref> If so, this would have suggested that riddles are not a universal art form.<ref>Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj, ''Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre'', Studia Fennica, Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), pp. 35–36; {{doi|10.21435/sff.10}}.</ref> However, Hieronymus Lalemant gave a fairly detailed account of a riddle-contest among the [[Wyandot people|Huron]] around 1639 as part of a healing ritual.<ref>Archer Taylor, "American Indian Riddles", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 57 (no. 223) (January–March, 1944), 1–15 (pp. 2–3). {{JSTOR|53575}}.</ref>
<blockquote>Someone will say, "What I desire and what I am seeking is that which bears a lake within itself;" and by this is intended a pumpkin or calabash. Another will say, "What I ask for is seen in my eyes—it will be marked with various colors"; and because the same Huron word that signifies "eye" also signifies "glass bead", this is a clue to divine what he desires—namely, some kind of beads of this material, and of different colors.</blockquote>
Accordingly, during the twentieth century, progressively more substantial collections of Native American riddles were made, including from the [[Alaskan Athabaskans]] (Ten'a) people in [[British Columbia]];<ref>J. Jetté, "Riddles of the Ten'a Indians", ''Anthropos'', 8 (1913), 181–201, 630–51. {{JSTOR|41103129}}.</ref><ref>Archer Taylor, "American Indian Riddles", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 57 (no. 223) (January–March, 1944), 1–15. {{JSTOR|53575}}.</ref> [[Amuzgo people]] in Central America;<ref>Charles T. Scott, "New Evidence of American Indian Riddles", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 76 (no. 301) (July–September 1963), 236–41. {{JSTOR|53852}}.</ref> and [[Quechua people]] in South America.<ref>Isbell, Billie Jean; Roncalla Fernandez, Fredy Amilcar, "The Ontogenesis of Metaphor: Riddle Games among Quechua Speakers Seen as Cognitive Discovery Procedures", ''Journal of Latin American Lore'', 3:1 (1977), 19–49. {{hdl|1813/2271}}.</ref> Thus, while data remains rather thin, it seems clear that riddling did exist in the Americas independently of European culture.

====Colonial traditions====
Riddles are found extensively in the settler-colonial cultures of the Americas.

One form of riddle features in ''[[payada]] de contrapunto'' ("counterpoint payada"), a [[Rioplatense]] musical genre in which guitar players compete in a symbolic duel.<ref>R.Fernández Manzano y otros: ''El trovo de la Alpujarra''. Ed. Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía, 1992, pág. 27</ref> Two guitar players challenge each other in song by asking a riddle-like question and/or answering the opponent's questions. This is performed through several successive rounds of witty exchanges which may include banter and even insults—typically with a humorous intent. The most famous literary example of counterpoint payada comes from [[Martín Fierro]], Part 2, Song 30, verses 6233–6838.<ref>Ghiano, Juan Carlos (1974). "El Contrapunto de Fierro y el Moreno". ''Revista Iberoamericana,'' XL:87-88, (1974): 337-352.</ref>

==<span id="contest">Riddle-contests</span>==
The Riddle Game is a formalized [[guessing game]], a contest of wit and skill in which players take turns asking riddles. The player that cannot answer loses. Riddle games occur frequently in [[mythology]] and [[folklore]] as well as in popular literature.

In many cultures or contexts, people are not actually expected to guess the answers to riddles: they may be told by the riddler, or learn riddles and their answers together as they grow up.<ref>Lyndon Harries, "The Riddle in Africa", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 84 (1971), 377–93 (pp. 387–88); {{doi|10.2307/539632}}; {{JSTOR|539632}}.</ref> Thus riddle-contests are not the only or even necessarily the main forum for the expression of riddles.

The unsolvable riddle with which literary characters often win a riddle-contest is sometimes referred to as [[neck-riddle]].

===In real life===

It seems that in [[ancient Greece]], riddle-competitions were popular as an intellectual entertainment at [[symposium|symposia]].<ref name="Gods Cannot Tell Lies' 2013 pp. 121"/> A key source for this culture is [[Athenaeus]].<ref>Erin Sebo, "In scirpo nodum: Symphosius' Reworking of the Riddle Form", in ''The Muse at Play: Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry'', ed. by Jan Kwapzt, David Petrain, and Mikolaj Szymanski, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 184–95 (p. 184).</ref>

Elaborate and unusual riddle-games took place in the culture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century [[Riddles (Finnic)|Finnish-language riddles]].<ref name="Leea Virtanen 1977 pp. 77-89"/> For example, [[Elias Lönnrot]] observed customary riddle-contests in nineteenth-century Finland:
<blockquote>It took place without teams, but was a kind of a contest: a member of the group would be sent out of the room, the others agreed on the riddle to be posed; for three failures to divine the answer, the riddlee would have to drop out of the game, to step aside, and to "buy" with a token the right to participate again.<ref name="jstor.org"/></blockquote>

===In ancient, medieval, and folk literature===
{{See also|Riddle-tales (ancient and medieval)}}
In older texts, riddle-contests frequently provide the [[frame story|frame stories]] whereby riddles have been preserved for posterity.<ref>''Riddling Tales from Around the World'', ed. by Marjorie Dundas (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002).</ref> Such contests are a subset of wisdom contests more generally. They tend to fall into two groups: testing the wisdom of a king or other aristocrat; and testing the suitability of a suitor. Correspondingly, the [[Aarne–Thompson classification systems]] catalogue two main folktale-types including riddle-contests: AT 927, Outriddling the Judge, and [[AT 851]], The Princess Who Can Not Solve the Riddle.<ref>Christine Goldberg, ''Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851'', Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 10–11.</ref>

===In modern literature===
* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s novel ''[[The Hobbit]]'', [[Gollum]] challenges [[Bilbo Baggins]] to a riddle competition for his life. Bilbo breaks "the ancient rules" of the game but is able to escape with Gollum's magic [[One Ring|ring]]. Rather like in the Old Norse ''Heiðreks saga'', although Bilbo asked more of a simple question than a riddle, by attempting to answer it rather than challenging it Gollum accepted it as a riddle; by accepting it, his loss was binding.<ref>Adam Roberts, ''The Riddles of the Hobbit'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).</ref>
* In ''[[The Grey King]]'', the third book of [[Susan Cooper]]'s fantasy sequence ''[[The Dark is Rising]]'', Will and Bran must win a riddle game in order for Bran to claim his heritage as the Pendragon.
* In [[Patricia A. McKillip]]'s ''The Riddle-Master'' trilogy, the ancient art of riddlery is taught at the College of Caithnard – the study based on books recovered from the ruins of the School of Wizards. The riddles in the series are composed of three parts – the question, the answer, and the stricture – and are both a way of recording history and a guide to living life. Riddles play a crucial role in the series, the main protagonist, Morgon of Hed, beginning his journey by winning the crown of the kings of Aum in a Riddle Game with the ancient ghost of Peven of Aum; Peven had a standing wager going that no one could win a riddle-game with him, and those who lost against him forfeited their lives. "Beware the unanswered riddle."
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands]]'' and ''[[The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass]]'', the ka-tet must riddle against Blaine the Mono in order to save their lives. At first Blaine can answer all riddles posed to him by the ka-tet easily, but then Eddie Dean, one of the ka-tet, gains the upper hand when he starts to ask [[joke riddle]]s, effectively frustrating Blaine's highly logical mind.
* In the ''[[Batman]]'' [[comic book]]s, one of the hero's best known enemies is [[The Riddler]] who is personally compelled to supply clues about his upcoming crimes to his enemies in the form of riddles and puzzles. Stereotypically, they are these kinds of simple children's riddles, but modern treatments generally prefer to have the character use more sophisticated puzzles.

==See also==
*[[Droodles]]
*[[Missing dollar riddle]]
*[[Newspaper riddle]]
*[[Oedipus and the Sphinx#Subject matter|Oedipus and the Sphinx]]
*[[Rumpelstiltskin]]
*[[Riddles (Anglo-Saxon)]]
*[[Riddles (Arabic)]]
*[[Riddles (Chinese)]]
*[[Riddles (Finnic)]]
*[[Riddles (Greek)]]
*[[Riddles (Hebrew)]]
*[[Riddles (Persian)]]
*[[Riddle joke]]
*[[Charades]]
*[[Neck riddle]]
*[[Dilemma story]]

==References==
<references />

==External links==
<!-- NB: External links are being reviewed on the Discussion page ("Talk:Riddle") at present. Please join in that discussion before adding new links here, particularly if you are promoting your own site.-->
{{Americana Poster|year=1920}}{{Wiktionary}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Riddles | volume= 23 |last1= Bradley |first1= Henry |author1-link= Henry Bradley |  pages = 316&ndash;317 |short=1}}
* [https://riddleness.com/ Riddleness - Riddles With Answers]
* [https://funriddlesforkids.com/ Riddles for Kids with Answers]
* [http://www.puzzlesandriddles.com/Riddles.html Puzzles And Riddles] – A mix of both original and classic riddles.
* [https://riddles.net Riddles.net] – A collection of riddles with answers for all ages.

{{Folklore genres}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Riddles| ]]