Riddles

In your journal, record definitions for riddle, pun, synecdoche and prosopopoeia.


Definition: Riddle (from Old English roedel, from roedan meaning "to give council" or "to read"): A universal form of literature in which a puzzling question or a conundrum is presented to the reader. The reader is often challenged to solve this enigma, which requires ingenuity in discovering the hidden meaning. A riddle may involve puns, symbolism, synecdoche, personification (especially prosopopoeia), or unusual imagery (from Dr. Kip Wheeler).

* Judges 14:14

• And he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle.
  

* Oedipus and the Sphinx

• "A thing there is whose voice is one;
  Whose feet are four and two and three.
  So mutable a thing is none
  That moves in earth or sky or sea.
  When on most feet this thing doth go,
  Its strength is weakest and its pace most slow."

* Let's read them and note particulars together.

* Anglo-Saxon Riddles

#1 Thousands lay up gold within this house,

     but no man made it.

 Spears past counting guard this house,

          but no man wards it.

#2 From hand to hand

About the hall I go,

Much do lords and ladies

Love to kiss me;

When I hold myself high

And the whole throng

Bows before me

Their blessedness

Shall flourish skyward

Beneath my fostering shade.

 

* Original Charades

"My first, tho’ water, cures no thirst,

My next alone has soul,

And when he lives upon my first,

He then is called my whole."

"When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit,

And my second confines her to finish the piece,

How hard is her fate! but how great is her merit

If by taking my whole she effects her release!" 

* Next: Tolkien's "Riddles in the Dark"

  Riddle: What has roots as nobody sees,

          Is taller than trees,

            Up, up it goes

            And yet never grows?

  Riddle: Thirty white horses on a red hill,

            First they champ,

            Then they stamp,

          Then they stand still.

  Riddle: Voiceless it cries,

          Wingless flutters,

          Toothless bites,

          Mouthless mutters.

  Riddle: An eye in a blue face

          Saw an eye in a green face,

          "That eye is like to this eye"

          Said the first eye,

          "But in low place,

          Not in high place."

  Riddle: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt

          Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

          It lies behind stars and under hills,

            And empty holes it fills.

          It comes first and follows after,

            Ends life, kills laughter.

  Riddle: A box without hinges, key, or lid,

          Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

  Riddle: Alive without breath,

          As cold as death;

          Never thirsty, ever drinking,

          All in mail, never clinking.

  Riddle: No-legs lay on one-leg,

          Two-legs sat near on three-legs,

          four legs got some.

  Riddle: This thing all things devours:

          Birds, trees, beasts, flowers;

          Gnaws iron, bites steel;

          Grinds hard stones to meal;

          Slays king, ruins town,

          And beats high mountain down.

* Journal 18: Riddle

• Compose a riddle to stump the class. 
• Make it rationally possible.
• Provide rhyme. 
• Have fun!