page_title: Riddle
section_title: International riddles
hierarchical_section_title: Riddle / International riddles
context_page_description: A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer.
  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 Köngas Maranda, whereas myths serve to encode and establish social norms, "riddles make 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".
context_section_description: Many riddles appear in similar form across many countries, and often continents. Borrowing of riddles happens on a small, local scale, and across great distances. 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 the last two centuries.
  Key examples of internationally widespread riddles, with a focus on European tradition, follow, based on the classic study by Antti Aarne.
caption: Tree of the year – a Faroese stamp depicting a traditional Faroese version of the year-riddle.
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