The Early Literary Riddle

Abstract

ALTHOUGH literary material and folk-material are often inextricably entwined, it is best for the folklorist to separate them as much as possible. Each feeds into the other literary men especially have drawn from the folk-reservoirs, but their imitations can usually be recognized easily. Literary tales have often been conceived of in the popular manner. As do the tale and the ballad, the riddle also has both popular and literary forms. The literary form is generally far longer, more vague and more diffuse than the folk-riddle. It generally contains a long series of assertions and contradictions which force the teller to sacrifice some of the unity of his conception. They depend less on specific details than do folk-riddles. Also, literary riddles are more likely to employ abstract themes, suggest obscene answers, and surprise the listener with an innocent solution. A great many give evidence of being deliberate artistic elaborations of folkthemes. Frederick Tupper distinguishes the two genres by the names 'Kunstratsel (artistic) and Volksratsel (folk)'.1 Literary riddles are of an extremely old tradition. We can often trace a continuous tradition from a Sanskrit riddle more than two