Raskolnikov
9th September 2025, 15:47
We need a thread for riddles and folktales akin to the Great Quotes thread, an ongoing collection of quality riddles and other strange puzzles and conundrums. Britannica defines the riddle as a “deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous question requiring a thoughtful and often witty answer. The riddle is a form of guessing game that has been a part of the folklore of most cultures from ancient times. Western scholars generally recognize two main kinds of riddle: the descriptive riddle and the shrewd or witty question,” while Wikipedia says, “A riddle is a statement, question, or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved.” With such intelligent and striving minds on the forum, many of you may already have an extensive arsenal of riddles at your disposal. I do not but have always admired the craft of the mind-bending puzzle. Most of us are familiar with the riddles between Gollum and Bilbo in The Hobbit. This would be good starting point. And please supply answers.
The folktales I’m hoping to pair with the riddles are the tales that keep in line with the premise of the riddle while expanding that premise and taking it to the next level. Let me explain. I was deep in the bowels of the earth in Australia one night in 1994. I was 24 at the time and with a large group of people from all over the world. Three hours south of Perth, we were picking grapes together at the beautiful vineyards in the Margaret River area. We all lived in the same caravan park (campground) for three months and became a large extended family. On our last night together, we grabbed guitars, drums, a boombox, coolers, assorted paraphernalia and hiked a good thirty minutes down into the earth to one of the biggest caves in the region. It had a sand floor like most beaches, a domed ceiling high above like a magnificent stone cathedral, and was nearly three football fields in circumference. We placed candles around the perimeter, set up right in the middle and proceeded with our farewell celebration smoking, drinking, singing, even some dancing. With this magically delicious candlelight enveloping the cave and transporting us to an ethereal dimension, a great Dane, a tan, hulking, perfect specimen of a man that all the girls in town fought over, who’d been following the picking season around the country for two years with his brother and two friends, proceeded to tell the most magical tales, lengthy quests and adventures that finished with an open ended question which he casually directed to whomever he chose as his prey. Sometimes it was a multiple choice question with three possible answers, each one meant to reveal deeper aspects of your true character. And these questions really put you on the spot because they came couched in ethical dilemmas and moral quandaries, ancient enigmas like a vision quest for the holy grail meant both to instruct and to reveal something about your inner being. It being so long ago, and because they were so intricately woven and detailed, like legends passed down from generation to generation, and because I have the memory of a goldfish, I cannot for the life of me remember a single one.
Since that night, I’ve longed to hear such elaborate riddle-like folktales again. No luck. Of course, not knowing what to even call such elaborate-and-open-ended-riddles hasn’t really helped me much, hence the use of the word “folktale.” Hoping some of you wise and spiritually minded individuals, this includes non-members, might be of assistance in giving these expertly crafted tales a name, or even better, posting a few. Hope some of you will join on this quest to catch the Riddler…
Gollum: What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than tree, Up, up, up it goes, and yet never grows?
Answer: Mountain
Bilbo: Thirty white horses on a red hill, first they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still.
A: Teeth
Gollum: Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters.
Wind
Bilbo: An eye in a blue face, saw an eye in a green face. ‘That eye is like to this eye,’ said the first eye, ‘but in low place not in high place.’
Sun shining on daisies
Gollum: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after,
ends life, kills laughter.
Dark
Bilbo: A box without hinges, key or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
Egg
Gollum: Alive without breath, as cold as death; never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking.
Fish
Bilbo: No-legs lay on one-leg, two leg sat near on three legs, four legs got some.
Answer: Fish on a little one-legged table, man at table sitting on a three-legged stool, the cat gets the bones.
Gollum: This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down.
Time
Bilbo: What have I got in my pocket?
Answer: The Ring.
(Note to mods: Maybe a moderator could help with a creative way to hide the answer while one is reading the question. A reveal or display answer button? Maybe we could just write the one word and short answers backwards, while the longer ones just write out because you can’t see the answer at a glance? Open to suggestions.)
The folktales I’m hoping to pair with the riddles are the tales that keep in line with the premise of the riddle while expanding that premise and taking it to the next level. Let me explain. I was deep in the bowels of the earth in Australia one night in 1994. I was 24 at the time and with a large group of people from all over the world. Three hours south of Perth, we were picking grapes together at the beautiful vineyards in the Margaret River area. We all lived in the same caravan park (campground) for three months and became a large extended family. On our last night together, we grabbed guitars, drums, a boombox, coolers, assorted paraphernalia and hiked a good thirty minutes down into the earth to one of the biggest caves in the region. It had a sand floor like most beaches, a domed ceiling high above like a magnificent stone cathedral, and was nearly three football fields in circumference. We placed candles around the perimeter, set up right in the middle and proceeded with our farewell celebration smoking, drinking, singing, even some dancing. With this magically delicious candlelight enveloping the cave and transporting us to an ethereal dimension, a great Dane, a tan, hulking, perfect specimen of a man that all the girls in town fought over, who’d been following the picking season around the country for two years with his brother and two friends, proceeded to tell the most magical tales, lengthy quests and adventures that finished with an open ended question which he casually directed to whomever he chose as his prey. Sometimes it was a multiple choice question with three possible answers, each one meant to reveal deeper aspects of your true character. And these questions really put you on the spot because they came couched in ethical dilemmas and moral quandaries, ancient enigmas like a vision quest for the holy grail meant both to instruct and to reveal something about your inner being. It being so long ago, and because they were so intricately woven and detailed, like legends passed down from generation to generation, and because I have the memory of a goldfish, I cannot for the life of me remember a single one.
Since that night, I’ve longed to hear such elaborate riddle-like folktales again. No luck. Of course, not knowing what to even call such elaborate-and-open-ended-riddles hasn’t really helped me much, hence the use of the word “folktale.” Hoping some of you wise and spiritually minded individuals, this includes non-members, might be of assistance in giving these expertly crafted tales a name, or even better, posting a few. Hope some of you will join on this quest to catch the Riddler…
Gollum: What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than tree, Up, up, up it goes, and yet never grows?
Answer: Mountain
Bilbo: Thirty white horses on a red hill, first they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still.
A: Teeth
Gollum: Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters.
Wind
Bilbo: An eye in a blue face, saw an eye in a green face. ‘That eye is like to this eye,’ said the first eye, ‘but in low place not in high place.’
Sun shining on daisies
Gollum: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after,
ends life, kills laughter.
Dark
Bilbo: A box without hinges, key or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
Egg
Gollum: Alive without breath, as cold as death; never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking.
Fish
Bilbo: No-legs lay on one-leg, two leg sat near on three legs, four legs got some.
Answer: Fish on a little one-legged table, man at table sitting on a three-legged stool, the cat gets the bones.
Gollum: This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down.
Time
Bilbo: What have I got in my pocket?
Answer: The Ring.
(Note to mods: Maybe a moderator could help with a creative way to hide the answer while one is reading the question. A reveal or display answer button? Maybe we could just write the one word and short answers backwards, while the longer ones just write out because you can’t see the answer at a glance? Open to suggestions.)