riddle, puzzling question, specifically one that consists of a fanciful description or definition of something to be guessed. A famous riddle was asked by the Sphinx: “What goes on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, on three at night?” Oedipus guessed the answer correctly: “Man—in infancy he crawls, at his prime he walks, in age he leans on a staff.” Samson's riddle is also famous: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness” (Judges 14.14). It refers to a lion he had just killed, on which he saw bees and honey; he ate some of the lion and the honey. Punning riddles are common, as: “When is a door not a door?” The answer is, “When it's ajar.” There is comparatively little riddle literature, but riddles do figure prominently in Old English. The Exeter Book contains many English verse riddles of uncertain date; they vary considerably in matter. There are also many riddles in Latin hexameters dating from Anglo-Saxon England.
See A. Taylor, English Riddles from Oral Tradition (1951); H. H. Abbott, ed., The Riddles of the Exeter Book (1968).
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