Riddle-tales are traditional stories featuring riddle-contests. They frequently provide the context for the preservation of ancient riddles for posterity, and as such have both been studied as a narrative form in their own right, and for the riddles they contain.E.g. Christine Goldberg, Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993). Such contests are a subset of wisdom contests more generally. The two major groups of these stories are: testing the wisdom of a king or other aristocrat; and testing the suitability of a suitor. Correspondingly, the Aarne–Thompson classification systems catalogue two main folktale-types including riddle-contests: AT 927, Outriddling the Judge, and AT 851, The Princess Who Can Not Solve the Riddle.Christine Goldberg, Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 10–11. Such stories invariably include answers to the riddles posed: 'the audience cannot be left dangling'.Christine Goldberg, Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 39.
Background The earliest example of a wisdom contest between kings is the Sumerian epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, from the first half of the second millennium BC, closely followed by the Egyptian The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenre, fragmentarily attested in a 13th-century BC papyrus about the Pharaoh Apophis and Seqenenre Tao. The Quarrel of Apophis and Segenenre is echoed in the later Tale of Setne Khamwas and Si-Osire, attested on papyrus in the Roman period, showing that this type of story continued to circulate in Egypt. These tales do not involve riddles as such.Ioannis M. Konstantakos, "Trial by Riddle: The Testing of the Counsellor and the Contest of Kings in the Legend of Amasis and Bias", Classica et Mediaevalia, 55 (2004), 85–137 (pp. 87 n. 3, 89–90).
These Egyptian stories, probably via lost Greek material, seem to have been an inspiration for the account of a wisdom-contest between Pharaoh Amasis II and the king of Ethiopia, in which the sage Bias of Priene helps the Pharaoh by solving the riddles, in Plutarch's 1st or 2nd-century AD Convivium Septem Sapientium. At least one of Plutarch's sources was probably shared by the Aesop Romance, which originated around the 4th century BC (chs 102–8, 111–23). The Aesop Romance also drew on similar stories of wisdom contests in various versions of the Story of Ahikar.Ioannis M. Konstantakos, "Trial by Riddle: The Testing of the Counsellor and the Contest of Kings in the Legend of Amasis and Bias", Classica et Mediaevalia, 55 (2004), 85–137.
List The following list is based on the survey by Christine Goldberg. A fuller collection is offered by Marjorie Dundas.Riddling Tales from Around the World, ed. by Marjorie Dundas (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002).
+Main or original languageEarliest known dateText title and summaryAT numberReferencesHebrew8th to 6th century BCESamson's riddle. In the Book of Judges, Samson poses a riddle to the Philistines at his wedding feast.Goldberg 1993, 17–18.Hebrew7th to 6th century BCESolomon and the Queen of Sheba. The queen tests Solomon with riddles (including I Kings 10.1–13 and II Chronicles 9.1–12). This inspired various later works: four riddles are ascribed to her in the 10th or 11th-century Midrash Proverbs.Jacob Lassner, Demonizing the Queen of Sheba: Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam. University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 9-17 These plus another fourteen or fifteen tests of wisdom, some of which are riddles, appear in the Midrash ha-Ḥefez (1430 CE). The early medieval Aramic Targum Sheni also contains three riddles posed by the Queen to Solomon.Goldberg 1993, 22–24.Ancient Greek6th or 5th century BCEHomer's death. Heraclitus describes Homer being prophesied to die upon failing to solve some children's riddle. The story is also told by Hesiod.Goldberg 1993, 15–16.Ancient Greek5th century BCEOedipus and the Sphinx. The riddle-contest is first alluded to in a play by Epicharmus of Kos.Goldberg 1993, 13–15.Aramaicfirst century BCE or CEKahramâneh and the Young Prince. A young prince wins a bride through a riddle-contest. The related story of Turandot in One Thousand and One Nights, which was the inspiration for several modern plays, involves a riddle-contest:Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), p. 41. the suitors need to answer all three questions to gain the Princess's hand, or else they are beheaded;Christine Goldberg, Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993). In Puccini's opera, Turandot grimly warns Calaf "the riddles are three, but Death is one".851Goldberg 1993, 25–26; 29–31.Aramaic5th century BCEThe Tale of Ahikar. Ahikar helps his king by solving riddles posed by a rival.Goldberg 1993, 17.Ancient Greek1st or 2nd century CESeptum sapientium convivium (The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men) in Plutarch's Moralia (2: 345–449). A woman poses riddles at a party.Goldberg 1993, 16–17.Ancient Greek3rd century CEApollonius of Tyre. Antiochus tests Apollonius's suitability to marry his daughter.Taylor 1948, 41; Goldberg 1993, 18–20.Sanskrit4th or 5th century CEThe Mahabharata. III.311-12 contains Yaksha Prashna, a series of riddles posed by a nature-spirit (yaksha) to Yudhishthira.Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj, "Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre", Studia Fennica, Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), pp. 11–12; . III.134 contains the story of Ashtavakra, who answers the riddles posed King Janaka and then defeats one Bandin in a further wisdom-contest.Ioannis M. Konstantakos, "Trial by Riddle: The Testing of the Counsellor and the Contest of Kings in the Legend of Amasis and Bias", Classica et Mediaevalia, 55 (2004), 85–137 (pp. 111–13).Goldberg 1993, 20–22.Arabic10th century CEThe marriage of Imrou-l-Qais. Imrou-l-Qais will only marry the woman who can solve his riddle.Goldberg 1993, 24-25Persian10th or 11th century CEShahnameh. A riddle-contest between Zal and Manuchehr, the emperor of Iran. Manuchehr fears and wishes to dispose of Zal, but is advised that Zal will become an unrivalled hero of Iran, so Manuchehr tests him with riddles, mostly cosmological.Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 25–30. Winning the riddle-contest is one of a number of steps for Zal to win the hand of Rudabeh. Also, Buzurjmihr faces a wisdom-contest.Goldberg 1993, 26–27.Sanskrit11th century CEBaital Pachisi. A vetala tells twenty-four tales, each culminating in a riddle. Unusually, the challenge here is for the hero to not solve a riddle.Goldberg 1993, 25.Persian?uncertainGul and Sanaubar. Suitors to a princess must answer a riddle.Kemp Malone, 'Rose and Cypress', PMLA, 43.2 (June 1928), 397-446, https://www.jstor.org/stable/45763.Goldberg 1993, 27–28.Old Norse13th century CEHervarar saga ok Heiðreks. The god Óðinn challenges King Heiðrekr to answer his riddles, known as the Gátur Gestumblinda.Jeffrey Scott Love, The Reception of Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century, Münchner Nordistische Studien, 14 (München: Herbert Utz Verlag, 2013), pp. 190–238.cf. 927Goldberg 1993, 31–34.Irish13th century CEImthecht na Tromdaime. The text contains at least one riddle,Christine Goldberg, Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 37. examples of which are very rare in medieval Irish literature.Patrick Sims-Williams, Irish Influence on Medieval Welsh Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 114–15. When the hero returns to the hall to punish the excessive demands of its poets, his wisdom is tested through a number of questions, including the following riddle: 'What good thing did man find on earth that God did not find?—A worthy master.'Goldberg 1993, 37.Germanuncertain CEIn the Grimm tale "The Peasant's Wise Daughter", a peasant-girl wins the king in marriage by solving a riddle he poses.875Persianca. 12th century 1762 1926The tale of Princess Turandot, a beautiful yet cold princess who proposes deadly riddles for her suitors. The tale was originally present in compilation Haft Peykar, and inspired Carlo Gozzi's commedia dell'arte Turandot and the more famous opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.851A
Christian Schneller, in the 19th century, collected a tale from Wälschtirol (Trentino) that is quite similar to the Turandot stories: a king invades the neighbouring country and imprisons the royal couple, but their son escapes and is raised by a poor man. Years later, the boy travels to the enemy kingdom and learns that his parents are alive and the princess is testing potential suitors with deadly riddles.Schneller, Christian. Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol. Innsbruck: Wagner. 1867. pp. 132-137.
In a Sri Lanka tale, The Riddle Princess: Terávili Kumari Kava, a princess loves solving riddles. A Rajah's son falls in love with her portrait and disguises himself as a penniless pilgrim in order to get to know the princess, as part of his plan.Van Dort, Aline. Legends of Ceylon In Fairy Tales: eké mat eké rataké (once in a certain country). Colombo: Platé [ca. 1900]. pp. 45-51.
See also The Riddle (fairy tale) The Ridere of Riddles A Riddling Tale Riddle joke
Sources Archer Taylor, The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1948). Christine Goldberg, Turandot's Sisters: A Study of the Folktale AT 851, Garland Folklore Library, 7 (New York: Garland, 1993).
References
Further reading Gutierrez, Maria. (2006). "El tonto que propuso una adivinanza imposible de acertar: una versión madrileña del cuento ATU 851". In: Culturas populares, Nº. 3, 2006 (in Spanish).