Riddle-tales are

traditional stories Traditional stories, or stories about traditions, differ from both fiction and nonfiction in that the importance of transmitting the story's worldview is generally understood to transcend an immediate need to establish its categorization as imagi ...

featuring riddle-contests. They frequently provide the context for the preservation of ancient

riddle A riddle is a statement, 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 requi ...

s for posterity, and as such have both been studied as a narrative form in their own right, and for the riddles they contain. 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. Such stories invariably include answers to the riddles posed: 'the audience cannot be left dangling'.

Background

The earliest example of a wisdom contest between kings is the Sumerian epic ''

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta'' is a legendary Sumerian account, preserved in early post-Sumerian copies, composed in the Neo-Sumerian period (ca. 21st century BC). It is one of a series of accounts describing the conflicts between Enmerkar, ...

'', from the first half of the second millennium BC, closely followed by the Egyptian ''

The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenre "The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenre" is an ancient Egyptian story. It is fragmentarily attested only in a papyrus copy made by a scribe named Pentawer during the reign of pharaoh Merenptah of the 19th Dynasty. The story is set in an earlier date ...

'', fragmentarily attested in a 13th-century BC papyrus about the Pharaoh Apophis and

Seqenenre Tao Seqenenre Tao (also Seqenera Djehuty-aa or Sekenenra Taa, called 'the Brave') ruled over the last of the local kingdoms of the Theban region of Egypt in the Seventeenth Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. He probably was the son an ...

. ''The Quarrel of Apophis and Segenenre'' is echoed in the later ''

Tale of Setne Khamwas and Si-Osire The "Tale of Setne Khamwas and Si-Osire" (also known as ''Setne II'') is a Demotic Egyptian story attested on papyrus in Roman Egypt. Some argue that it is an answer to the biblical account about Sheba testing Solomon with hard "questions" in 1 Ki ...

'', 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. 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 Amasis II ( grc, Ἄμασις ; phn, 𐤇𐤌𐤎 ''ḤMS'') or Ahmose II was a pharaoh (reigned 570526 BCE) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais. He was the last great ruler of Egypt before the Persian conques ...

and the king of Ethiopia, in which the sage

Bias of Priene Bias (; Greek: Βίας ὁ Πριηνεύς; fl. 6th century BC) of Priene was a Greek sage. He is widely accepted as one of the Seven Sages of Greece and was renowned for his probity. Life Bias was born at Priene (modern-day Güllübahçe, Tur ...

helps the Pharaoh by solving the riddles, in

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ...

's 1st or 2nd-century AD ''

Convivium Septem Sapientium Convivium may refer to: *Symposium *''Convivium'', a magazine published by Cardus *''Convivium'', a short story by Kelli Stanley Kelli Stanley (born 1964) is an American author of mystery-thrillers. The majority of her published fiction is written ...

''. 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 The ''Story of Aḥiqar'', also known as the ''Words of Aḥiqar'', is a story first attested in Imperial Aramaic from the 5th century BCE on papyri from Elephantine, Egypt, that circulated widely in the Middle and the Near East.Christa Müll ...

''.

List

The following list is based on the survey by Christine Goldberg. A fuller collection is offered by

Marjorie Dundas Marjorie is a female given name derived from Margaret, which means pearl. It can also be spelled as Margery or Marjory. Marjorie is a medieval variant of Margery, influenced by the name of the herb marjoram. It came into English from the Old Fren ...

. 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 their parents are alive and the princess is testing potential suitors with deadly riddles. In a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n 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, 18. pp. 45-51.

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

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Background

List

See also

Sources

References

Further reading