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Si me retro legis, potui vivere numquam
Continuo vivam, sumens de nomine vitam.
Si me retro legis, faciam de nomine verbum.
Femina cum fuerim, imperativus ero.
The answers are (1) lamina, animal; (2) Eva, ave.14
The first to record riddles were possibly the Sumerians, who were already noting them down in cuneiform in the fourth millennium BC. On the other hand, few genres have enjoyed such marked shifts in prestige as the riddle. Many celebrated writers and scholars have both invented and drawn inspiration from popular riddles; in the 17th century, they used riddles to produce poetry of distinction.15
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 (mysteries) which are now obscure but may have been an enigmatic (mysterious) 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 (Hindu Sacred Religious Books). 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?" Answers: The first answer is bird (vi), the second is dog (çva), the third is sun (mitra), and the whole is Viçvamitra, Rama's first teacher and counselor and a man noted for his outbursts of rage'.16
The Greeks in particular were great riddlers. Though Aesop’s Fables and some of the pithy pronouncements of Pythagoras of Samos were described as enigmas in their day, the first use of the word with its modern connotation was by the poet Pindar. And Diogenes Laertius, in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers, profiles the venerable enigmatographer Cleobulus (c. 600 BC) who is said to have written over 3000 lines of songs and riddles.
In Africa riddles have been extensively collected and they are often very closely related to proverbs. Like proverbs they are expressed briefly and concisely; they involve analogy, whether of meaning, sound, rhythm, or tone; and the two forms are sometimes even combined in the ‘proverb-riddle’.
Among some of the Central Bantu, for instance, a common riddle that occurs in various forms—’Something I threw over to the other side of the river—Eyes’ recalls the equally common proverb ‘The eye crosses a full river’, metaphorically signifying that desire goes beyond the possible.17
Riddles also occur in the tale of Abu al- Husn and his slave girl Tawaddud in The Arabian Nights Entertainment, whose earliest stories date from eighth century, but perhaps the best oriental enigmas of this period occur in the Shanamah, or ‘Book of Kings’, of Persia. It consists of 60000 rhyming couples and was written by Firdusi.18
The Old English Riddles are “poems which are examples of poetic composition in highly conventionalized and widely prevalent genres”. 19 They are preserved in the Exeter Manuscript in three groups. Riddles 1-60 on folios 101a-115a; Riddle 60 and a second version of riddle 30 on folios 122b-123a; Riddles 61-95 on folios 124b-130b. The third book has unfortunately been badly damaged by fire, the result being that 19 have their text impaired and 2 (20 and 40) are incomplete, probably as a result of missing folios.20 Originally, the manuscript probably contained 100 riddles. This assumption is based on earlier collections in Latin that had this same amount of Riddles,21 e.g. Aldhel’s Enigmata, Symphosius and Tatwine and Eusebius’ collection.
During the period of Renaissance, the most notable writer of England, the great playwright W.Shakespeare used innumerable allusions to riddles and riddling in his plays.
Lysander ‘riddles very prettily’ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; ‘riddling confession finds but riddling shrift’ for Romeo in Romeo and Juliet; and a rather grim enigma also appears in the gravediggers’ scene of Hamlet (Act V, Scene 1) thus:
First clown:
What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright or the carpenter?
Second clown:
The gallows- maker, for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
The first riddle book printed in the English language was The Demaundes Joyous, produced by Wynkyn de Worde in 1511. Essentially a selective translation of a French book known as Demandes joyeuses en maniere de quodlibets and published at the end of the previous century, it contains fifty- four riddles, some of which are mildly obscene and some are rather dull, being just questions testing one’s knowledge of the Bible. None the less this little book, originally published in the reign of Henry VIII, has remained popular over the years. Here is a short example:
What thing is it, the less it is more it is dread? to which the answer is “a bridge”.
Another popular collection of the sixteenth century was The riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus (1598), printed by Arnold Hatfield. Other collections creating interest at this time were Wit’s Extraction(1664) by William Bagwell and Wit’s Academy, or Six Peny’worth for a Penny (1656), reputed to have been the work of Ben Jonson, though published nineteen years after his death.22
In modern times a lot of medieval riddles were preserved in old folk tales, like in the collection of Children’s and Household Tales (1812) of the Brothers Grimm. The two German culture experts lovingly preserved over 200 tales in their books, which became extremely popular the world over. There is even a German fairy tale called The Riddle collected by Brothers Grimm where solving a riddle also leads to a royal marriage. So as we can see, riddles often served the same purpose in old folk tales: solving a riddle was rewarded with a prize and emphasized the wise and noble character of the story’s hero.23
The “Hobbit” is one of the most beloved and influential works of the twentieth century which includes numerous riddles and songs. Published in the United Kingdom in 1937, it is currently well-known as the prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other famous work “The Lord of the Rings”. The riddles in the Hobbit were more than a word game and their shape was determined by Tolkien’s creativity and culture, as well as the time in which the Hobbit was written. Chapter five of the book is titled “Riddles in the dark”.24
Today riddles have a special place among the examples of folklore, which reflect the centuries- old way of life, customs and views of each nation, passed down from ancestors to generations. The riddles mainly cover the dreams and hopes of the people, their attitude to events and realities, the world of imagination. Riddles are undoubtedly an invaluable heritage that reveals the historical culture and spirituality of the people.
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