A Brief History of Riddles
Riddles are the oldest guessing game in the world, and probably the most widespread. In many parts of the world they have been and still are a favorite game at family and communal gatherings, and there are riddles in the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and the Hindu 'Rig-Veda'. At ancient Greek banquets, the top riddle-solvers were crowned with laurel. In the Fiji islands teams were picked for riddle tournaments, with the losers laying on a feast for the winners. In Turkey girls test the wits of their suitors with riddles, choosing the winner for their husbands. Among some African tribes riddling is part of the rites of passage from youth to adulthood.
So riddles have been used traditionally both as entertainment and as tests of some kind.
In Western culture riddles stayed alive in the oral tradition but also moved into books. Voltaire, Cervantes, Goethe and Dickens all wrote riddles, and riddles appear in The Hobbit, Harry Potter and the movie 'Hook'. Nowadays we tend to regard them as something that children do, which is a pity, for riddles can be enjoyed by everyone, and are an excellent exercise for the mind.
Riddles from around the world
(One of the interesting aspects of global riddles is the way different cultures have riddles about the same thing. Watch out for the riddles in this collection about teeth and tongue).
Paraguay:
I have big listeners
Slim ground-touchers
And a skinny scare-fly.
What am I?
Peru:
I walk barefoot on the earth
But my spurs are gold
my crown is red
and my voice brings forth the sun.
England:
Thirty white horses
Upon a red hill;
Now they tramp
Now they tramp
Now they stand still
Italy:
I dance my dance
in a theater
full of white chairs
Portugal:
One says "Let's go!"
One says "Let's stay!"
One says "Let's dance!"
One says "Let's fly!"
Switzerland:
I shout along the street
Yet have no lung
I lick the snow like sugar sweet
Yet I have no tongue
Estonia:
One keeps me forever
Two share me
Three give me away
Egypt:
You neither plant nor plough me
yet you eat me
I am the child of water
yet if my parent touches me
I die
Turkey:
There is marble below
and marble above
and in the middle
a red woman dances.
Africa:
Tonga:
I swallow people at night
and I spit them out in the morning
Zulu:
Who are the men
adorned in red hip-dresses
lined up in a row
to dance the wedding-dance?
Kxatla:
Baboon, squat on your haunches
so that the children can rejoice
Mauritius:
I throw it into the air
and it falls to the ground
I throw it on the ground
and it goes up in the air
Arabia:
A lady sits weeping in the window
and her tears will finally destroy her
Iran:
It has the form of the dome
of an elegant minaret
It grows a long beard
Its red and white costume
clings closely to it
Whoever kills it
will weep over its body.
India:
What has two horns when young
loses them in adulthood
and regains them in old age?
Malaysia:
Who moves away from you
when you pull it with a rope
and moves nearer to you
when you let its rope go?
China:
In a lumpy little house
a fat white baby
sleeps under a red mosquito net
Mongolia:
A sorrel horse
behind fence of birch trees
What is this?
Tibet:
If you tie him up he runs
but if you untie him and set him free
he stands still
Japan:
There's a sweetshop
inside a lumber shop
inside a leather shop
inside a thorn shop
Mexico:
Four stampers
Two lookers
Two man-killers
And a fly-killer
Cuba:
Locked in a narrow prison
Guarded by ivory soldiers
There is a red snake
Who is the mother of lies
USA:
White as snow, but snow it ain't
Green As grass, but grass it ain't
Red as blood, but blood it ain't
Black as coal, but coal it ain't