Robert's Raves

Riddle Me This and Riddle Me That
by Robert Rodriguez

n an Ozark version of the classic tale of Mr. Fox, collected by Vance Randolph over half a century ago, the plucky heroine, Polly, asks the riddle of Mr. Fox:

Riddle me this and riddle me right
Where were you last Saturday night?
The tree did bend and the bow did break
To see the hole the fox did make

This riddle is instrumental in unmasking Mr. Fox who then suffers the ultimate penalty for his dark deeds.

As folklorist Archer Taylor puts it, riddles have been a source of amusement, intrigue, perplexity and delight to peoples and cultures around the world from ancient times. They have helped heroes and heroines win great fortunes, gain husbands and wives, defeat adversaries and save kingdoms from ruin and desolation. From the hero of Jack tales to Dame Ragnel to the Kazak heroine Clever Iraine, they have become an integral part of world folklore and oral tradition.

In 1923, German ethnographer and folklore specialist, Walter Anderson, published Kaiser und Abt. (to my knowledge, it has never been translated into English) It deals specifically with the international tale known as The Emperor and the Abbot (Type 922 in the Aarne-Thompson Types of the Folk-tale). Anderson traced the tale’s origin to a tale from seventh century Palestine. From there it spread across the world. It exists in nearly six hundred forty versions and is known from the British Isles to the Far East and from Scandinavia to the deserts of central Asia.

It is best known in English as Ride with the Sun, from the second riddle proposed by King John to the Abbot of Canterbury. In ballad form it was collected by Professor F. J. Child as The Ballad of King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (number 45 in his collection). This tale has been ascribed to such historical rulers as Alfonso the Wise of Spain, Matthias of Hungary, Charles the Fifth of Hapsburg, and, in a variant from Turkey, the Mongol leader, Tamerlane. In this version, Tamerlane’s verbal adversary is Turkey’s national folk hero, Nasrudin-Hodja.

In the tale there is usually a commoner who disguises himself as a bishop, priest or other prelate. The monarch wishes to humble him, but is humbled himself when the riddles are successfully answered. In different versions the riddles number from three to nine. They include such questions as; the monarch’s worth, the number of stars in the sky, the distance from earth to heaven, and what is the monarch thinking.

If disguised shepherds and commoners reign supreme in this tale, the ladies take over in another folktale known in world folklore. It is that tale of a peasant girl/commoner matches with a judge, duke, king or other symbol of authority. She solves all the riddles and tasks put to her, becomes his wife, and, in the end, teaches him the error of false pride. The heroines go by different names around the world: Manca to the Czechs, Samantha in eastern Kentucky, Isabella in Chile, Similitca in Russia, Bridget in Ireland. And let us not forget Clever Iraine among the yurt dwelling Kazaks, Tajiks and Turkomans of central Asia.

In each version of the tale, the riddles are usually the same: what is the swiftest thing in the world, the richest thing and the sweetest thing. The tasks are pretty standard: arrive at court by neither day or night, neither riding or walking, neither dressed or undressed, come neither hungry nor satiated, and bring a gift that is not a gift.

Another heroine who triumphs with riddles is Morgan in the Welsh tale, "The Pot of Brains." Another version, the heroine is Jack’s wife in "Jack and the Poddle of Brains." Morgan or Jack, depending on the version, must answer the riddles of the wise woman. The riddles might include: what is yellow and not gold, what runs without feet, what is only thirty days old but has always been, and what walks on no legs, two legs and four legs. In the Jack version it is his wife who supplies the answers. The wise woman informs him that he now has his pot of brains—in his wife’s own head—and that is enough for the two of them.

In a tale from Syria, a merchant’s young daughter, Selima, matches wits with Iblis, the evil one himself. She finally wins when she can answer his question "How many days have passed since Allah created the world?" She replied, "seven."

In a legend from New Zealand, the daughter of a chief must engage a ponaturi (a spectral ocean denizen) in a riddle contest. If she can keep the sea-lady occupied until a ray of sunlight strikes her, the ponaturi will disappear beneath the ocean waves and the young woman’s lover will be saved.

Lest one think that all who successfully answer a riddle will gain their heart’s desire, one should remember the fate of poor Oedipus. Sure, he did answer the riddle of the Sphinx, but considering what befell subsequently, he might have been better off staying in bed that day—or taking a different road—or gone fishing. At least he was instrumental in giving a giant head start to thousands of future psychoanalysis students in their search for unique research paper topics.

In a Szekely tale from Hungary, a young farmer named Mirko engaged the devil in a riddle contest. He won by asking the devil, "What is higher than the highest, lower than the lowest, greater than God, worse than the devil. The dead eat it but the living cannot". The answer is "nothing", but the devil didn’t guess it. Mirko didn’t quite win out in the end. The devil revenged himself by giving Mirko a wife who was a shrew and a dragon. Mirko was tormented for the rest of his life. He was heard to mutter, "I would have been better off if I had married the devil himself".

The devil is often at the center of a riddle contest. This is exemplified in such Anglo-American ballads as "Love’s Riddles Wisely Expounded," The Elfin Knight," and "False Knight Upon the Road." There are numerous versions on both sides of the Atlantic. Riddles found in these ballads include:

What is sharper than a thorn?
What is louder than a horn?
What is higher than a tree?
What is deeper than the sea?
What is whiter than the milk?
What is softer than the silk?
What is greener than the grass?
What is worse than womankind?
(The ballad singer’s opinion, not mine)

Some riddle contests seem to go on forever (or just seems that way.) Finland’s epic poem, The Kallevala, tells how Finland’s first harper, the mighty magician Vainemoinen, engaged the giant, Vaipunen, in a riddle contest that lasted for three days. It only ended because the giant’s voice cracked from exhaustion. In a tale from the Faroe Islands a sailor engaged in a battle of wits with a nasty troll until a ray of sunlight struck the troll and turned him into stone. In a Breton tale, a farmer had an all night riddle session with the devil. The morning bells of a nearby church forced the devil to depart in haste without the farmer’s soul. In another tale, a Russian forester was kidnapped by a vodyanik (water sprite) and forced into a bout of riddles. The creature’s daughter revealed the secret of her father’s power and the forester was able to win.

Some riddles are solved by direct action. According to a legend, Alexander the Great was told that the man who could solve the riddle of the Gordian Knot would rule the world. Alexander simply cut the knot and marched into world history and fame.

Some riddles have no answer. This is demonstrated in the twenty-fifth tale of the Indian cycle of stories involving King Vickram and the baital, the vampire corpse. Vickram was unable to answer the baital’s riddle to be free of the baital’s curse and save his own life.

Then, of course, there is the riddle that is not a riddle, in the truest sense of the word. This is the riddle that Bilbo Baggins asked Smaeagol-Gollem. "What has it got in its pockets?" Bilbo cheated. Gollem lost his precious and Bilbo escaped with the great Ring of Power. And a great literary trilogy came into the realm of modern fantasy.

But, a riddle is a riddle, even when it’s not. That’s what the best riddles are about. So may it always be, where a good and memorable story is concerned

—published in WIP Winter 1998

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