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55-532: 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. Many riddles and riddle-themes are internationally widespread. In the assessment of Elli Köngäs-Maranda (originally writing about Malaitian riddles, but with an insight that has been taken up more widely), whereas myths serve to encode and establish social norms, "riddles make

110-510: A craftsman turned me into a level plain again. A cultivator soon irrigates fertile furrows with waves; my meadows render a harvest of balsam of every kind, with which I will supply nourishment to the healthy and healing to the sick. The writing riddle was very popular in the Romance languages , and indeed arguably the first attestation of a language written in Romance rather than Latin

165-562: A dissertation on the fairy tale motifs in the Wolfdietrich epics. At Harvard, he studied under such famous scholars as Kuno Francke , George Lyman Kittredge , John Albrecht Walz, Hans Carl Gunther von Jagemann, William Henry Schofield , Charles Hall Grandgent , and F.N. Robinson. From them he developed interest in such fields as German literature, Germanic philology, Scandinavian studies, Romance languages, Celtic and, folklore in general. Taylor also spent two summers studying abroad: at

220-659: 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". 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

275-547: A man noted for his outbursts of rage'. Accordingly, riddles are treated in early studies of Sanskrit poetry such as Daṇḍin 's seventh- or eighth-century Kāvyādarśa . 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 . The first riddle collection in

330-582: A medieval Indic language is traditionally thought to be the riddles of Amir Khusrow (1253–1325), which are written in Hindawi , in verse, in the mātrika metre . 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. Riddles have also been collected in Tamil. While riddles are not numerous in

385-523: A neo-Byzantine revival in around the early eighteenth century. There was a particular peak around the long twelfth century. Two Latin riddles are preserved as graffiti in the Basilica at Pompeii . 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 Bern Riddles , a collection of Latin riddles clearly modelled on Symphosius, were composed in

440-520: A point of playing with conceptual boundaries 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". The modern English word riddle shares its origin with the word read , both stemming from the Common Germanic verb * rēdaną , which meant 'to interpret, guess'. From this verb came

495-561: 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. This is one of the most famous riddles of that time: Es kam ein Vogel federlos, saß auf dem Baume blattlos, da kam die Jungfer mundlos und fraß den Vogel federlos von dem Baume blattlos. Archer Taylor Archer Taylor (August 1, 1890 – September 30, 1973)

550-707: A schoolbook. It is thought that the world's earliest surviving poetic riddles survive in the Sanskrit Rigveda . Hymn 164 of the first book of the Rigveda can be understood to comprise a series of riddles or enigmas which are now obscure but may have been an enigmatic exposition of the pravargya ritual . These riddles overlap in significant part with a collection of forty-seven in the Atharvaveda ; riddles also appear elsewhere in Vedic texts . Taylor cited

605-743: 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. Other Hebrew-writing exponents included Moses ibn Ezra , Yehuda Alharizi , Judah Halevi , Immanuel

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660-608: A walking stick. This type includes riddles along the lines of this German example: 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. The conceit here

715-768: 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 . Riddles survive only fragmentarily in Old High German : three, very short, possible examples exist in manuscripts from

770-402: Is an international riddle type, attested across Europe and Asia. Its most basic form was defined by Antti Aarne as 'white field, black seeds', where the field is a page and the seeds are letters. However, this form admits of variations very diverse in length and degree of detail. For example, a version from Astrakhan translates as "the enclosure is white, the sheep are black", while one from

825-505: Is attested in a fifteenth-century manuscript: Blanc est le champ, noire est la semence, l'omme qui le semme, est de tresgrant science. White is the field, black is the seed, the man who sows it is of very great knowledge. And these versions are attested in the French creole of Mauritius : Latére blanc, lagrains noir? ─Papier sembe lécriture Lamain sémé, liziés récolté? ─Crire av lire Blanc napas capave travaille sans noir? ─Plime bisoin lenque The earth

880-521: 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. An example of Four Hang; Two Point the Way , to which the pre-eminent solution is 'cow' is given here in thirteenth-century Icelandic form: 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

935-462: Is the eighth- or ninth-century Veronese Riddle : 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. This French version

990-514: Is white, the seed black? ─Paper and writing The hand sows, the eyes reap? ─Writing and reading The white cannot work without the black? ─ A pen needs ink Pen riddles are to a greater or lesser extent allied to the traditional writing riddle. Examples of pure pen-riddles include the Old English Exeter Book Riddle 60 , two by the tenth-century Hebrew-language poet Dunash ben Labrat , and others follow. I

1045-856: The Journal of American Folklore . In 1965, Archer worked with his Finnish friend Matti Kuusi to establish the journal Proverbium . Taylor retired in 1958 but continued to be intellectually active and productive, spending periods as visiting professor at the "University of Texas (1959), Indiana University (1958 and 1962) and Ohio State University (1963)" and continuing to publish books. He died on September 30, 1973, in Vallejo, California . His publications were numerous, included work in medieval literature, philology, folklore, bibliography, etc., eventually totalling over four hundred books, monographs, articles and notes in America and Europe. His most famous work

1100-519: The Don Kalmyks appears as "a black dog runs on white snow", and literary riddlers especially have produced long variations on the theme, often overlapping with riddles on pens and other writing equipment. Literary riddles have been particularly prized by scholars for the insights they give into how past writers have conceptualised the act of writing. One of the Old English riddles of

1155-669: The Exeter book is a variations on the writing-riddle: Exeter Book Riddle 51 . Earlier and more frequent examples appear among Anglo-Latin riddles, however, as follows. Melligeris apibus mea prima processit origo. Sed pars exterior crescebat caetera silus; Calciamenta mihi tradebant tergora dura; Nunc ferri stimulus faciem proscindit amoenam Flexibus et sulcos obliquat ad instar aratri; Sed semen segetis de caelo ducitur almum Quod largos generat millena fruge maniplos Heu tam sancta seges diris extinguitur armis. My inner part came from honey-bearing bees, But my outer part grew in

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1210-790: The Monastery of St Gallen , but, while certainly cryptic, they are not necessarily riddles in a strict sense. About 150 survive in Middle High German , mostly quoted in other literary contexts. 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). These riddles do, however, provide insights into Norse mythology , medieval Scandinavian social norms, and rarely attested poetic forms. By contrast, verse riddles were prominent in early medieval England , following

1265-467: The 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 . 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

1320-759: 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 . 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. Otherwise, riddles are sparse in ancient Semitic writing. In

1375-566: The King's white hall. Here, a snowflake falls from the sky, and is blown off by the wind. The riddle was at times a prominent literary form in the ancient and medieval world, and 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. According to Archer Taylor, "the oldest recorded riddles are Babylonian school texts which show no literary polish". The answers to

1430-743: The Roman and Israel Onceneyra . 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. Riddles are known to have been popular in Greece in Hellenistic times, and possibly before; they were prominent among

1485-464: 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). 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, and by Archer Taylor . In

1540-710: The University of California Berkeley. In 1939, they moved to California, where he served as Professor of German Literature and Folklore at the University of California at Berkeley, as Chairman of the Department from 1940 to 1945. While in California, they built a home in the Napa Valley , where they hosted many folklorists. While in California, he worked as a journal editor, for California Folklore Quarterly (which he helped found) (now Western Folklore ) and

1595-792: The University of California and was appointed a senator of the University of Giessen in Germany. He was a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927 and again in 1960, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949, was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society and president of the Modern Language Association in 1951, and was president of the American Folklore Society 1936–38. In 1960 Taylor

1650-875: The University of Freiburg (Breisgau) in 1913 and at the University of Helsingfors (under Kaarle Krohn ) in 1925. In 1915 Taylor began teaching German at Washington University in St. Louis, eventually being promoted to professor. He moved to the University of Chicago in 1925. By 1927 Taylor had become the Chairman of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. He married his childhood sweetheart Alice Jones on September 9, 1915, and they had three children. He lost her June 16, 1930, while they lived in Chicago. He later married Dr. Hasseltine Byrd, who became his second wife on June 17, 1932. They had two children. Like her husband, Dr. Hasseltine Byrd Taylor also taught for many years at

1705-598: The banks, always close to the depths, sweetly I sing for the Muses; when drenched with black, I am the tongue’s messenger by guiding fingers pressed. This poem adverts to the use of reeds for making pipes as well as pens. One split in his head it is, through whom ‘the writ’ is known, as honoured recording angels take their pride in him; When given a drink he craves for more, as though athirst, and settles to rest when thirstiness takes hold of him; And scatters tears about him when he bids him run, but tears that sparkle with

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1760-542: The brightness of a smile. وَذي نُحولٍ راكع ساجدٍ أعْمى بصيرٍ دَمْعُهُ جاري مُلازِم الخَمْسِ لَأَوقاتها مجتهِد في طاعة الباري I recall somebody scrawny, bowing down, putting his forehead on the ground, blind but discerning—his tears flowing, He keeps to the five (prayers) in their appointed times and exerts himself in obeying the Creator (/the sharpener). What's slender, smooth and fine, and speaks with power while dumb, in utter silence kills, and spews

1815-415: The case of ancient riddles recorded without solutions, considerable scholarly energy also goes into proposing and debating solutions. 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, highlighting their role of re-orienting reality in

1870-652: 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. Riddles were evidently hugely popular in Germany:

1925-482: The early seventh century by an unknown author, perhaps in northern Italy. Symphosius's collection also inspired a number of Anglo-Saxon riddlers who wrote in Latin. 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. The perhaps eighth- or ninth-century Veronese Riddle

1980-512: The entertainments and challenges presented at symposia . Oracles were also represented as speaking in often riddlic language. 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, probably put into its present form by Constantine Cephalas , working in the tenth century CE. Most surviving ancient Greek riddles are in verse. In

2035-651: The face of fear and anxiety. However, wide-ranging studies of riddles have tended to be limited to Western countries, with Asian and African riddles being relatively neglected. Riddles have also attracted linguists, often studying riddles from the point of view of semiotics ; 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. Many riddles appear in similar form across many countries, and often continents. Borrowing of riddles happens both on

2090-420: 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

2145-400: The gleaming pelican, Who takes the waters of the sea into his open mouth. Now I travel a narrow path over white-glowing fields; I leave cerulean footprints along the shining way, Obscuring the bright fields with my blackened windings. It is not enough for me to open one pathway through the fields; Rather, the road runs its course in a thousand byways And leads those who stray not to

2200-410: The heights of heaven. Efferus exuviis populator me spoliavit, Vitalis pariter flatus spiramina dempsit; In planum me iterum campum sed verterat auctor. Frugiferos cultor sulcos mox irrigat undis; Omnigenam nardi messem mea prata rependunt, Qua sanis victum et lesis praestabo medelam. A savage ravager robbed me of my clothing, and likewise deprived my pores of the breath of life; but

2255-549: The last two centuries. Key examples of internationally widespread riddles follow, based on the classic (European-focused) study by Antti Aarne . The basic form of the writing-riddle is 'White field, black seeds', where the field is a page and the seeds are letters. An example is the eighth- or ninth-century Veronese Riddle : 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,

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2310-598: The medieval period, however, verse riddles, alongside other puzzles and conundra, became a significant literary form in the Arabic-speaking world, and accordingly in Islamic Persian culture and in Hebrew — particularly in Al-Andalus . 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

2365-675: 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, and they often subvert

2420-467: 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. The year-riddle is found across Eurasia. 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

2475-420: 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

2530-457: 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." Literary riddles were also composed in Byzantium , from perhaps the tenth century with the work of John Geometres , into the fifteenth century, along with

2585-658: The seminal composition of 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 Riddles 40/66 , are in origin translations of riddles by Aldhelm (and Riddle 35

2640-506: The way out, Two ward the dogs off, One ever dirty Dangles behind it. This riddle ponder O prince Heidrek! The cow has four teats, four legs, two horns, two back legs, and one tail. The featherless bird-riddle is best known in Central Europe. An English version is: 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

2695-751: The woods; Hard hides supplied my shoes. Now a goad of iron cuts my pleasant face; In the likeness of a plough, it bends the furrows with its curving motions. But from heaven comes the nourishing seed for the harvest, Which brings forth generous sheaves in a thousandfold fruit. Alas that such a holy crop is destroyed by harsh weapons! Me dudum genuit candens onocratulus albam Gutture qui patulo sorbet de gurgite limphas. Pergo per albentes directo tramite campos Candentique uiae uestigia cerula linquo Lucida nigratis fuscans anfractibus arua. Nec satis est unam per campos pandere callem Semita quin potius milleno tramite tendit Quae non errantes ad caeli culmina uexit. I am shining white, born long ago of

2750-414: The year, which together supposedly have 360 days and 360 nights). The most famous example of this type is the riddle of the Sphinx . This Estonian example shows the pattern: 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 The riddle describes a crawling baby, a standing person, and an old person with

2805-504: Was The Proverb (1931), which contains his most famous quote, "the definition of a proverb is too difficult to repay the undertaking... An incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that is not". Though Taylor's contribution to the studies of proverbs is better known, his contribution to the studies of riddles is also significant. "Archer Taylor ... among modern folklorists has contributed most to riddle scholarship." Taylor received honorary doctorate of law degree from

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2860-462: Was a reed, a useless plant; for from me is born neither fig nor apple nor grape; but a man initiated me into the ways of Helicon, having shaped fine edges and having carved out a narrow channel. From then, should I drink black liquid, as if inspired, with this dumb mouth I utter every kind of word. Dulcis amica ripae, semper uicina profundis, Suaue cano Musis; nigro perfusa colore, Nuntia sum linguae digitis signata magistris. Sweet darling of

2915-544: Was by Robert Petsch in 1899, with another seminal contribution, inspired by structuralism , by Robert A. Georges and Alan Dundes in 1963. 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". There are many possible sub-sets of the riddle, including charades , droodles , and some jokes . In some traditions and contexts, riddles may overlap with proverbs . For example,

2970-629: Was honored by a Festschrift , Humaniora: Essays in Literature, Folklore, Bibliography: Honoring Archer Taylor on His Seventieth Birthday , edited by his friends Wayland D. Hand and Gustave O. Arlt. At the annual meetings of the Western States Folklore Society, which he helped found, there is an invited lecture in the Archer Taylor Lecture Series. Writing-riddle The writing-riddle

3025-715: Was one of America's "foremost specialists in American and European folklore", with a special interest in cultural history, literature, proverbs , riddles and bibliography. Taylor was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, on August 1, 1890. He enrolled at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.A. and M.A. in German. He then taught German at Pennsylvania State College. He went on to Harvard University, receiving his Ph.D. degree in German in 1915 with

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