Riddle

A riddle is a statement, <a href="/facts/Question/NsG1sCSK">question</a>, or <a href="/facts/Phrase/mbnD0ksH">phrase</a> having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a <a href="/facts/Puzzle/jHj94E7b">puzzle</a> to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in <a href="/facts/Metaphor/xwsLaqJI">metaphorical</a> or <a href="/facts/Allegory/RKXvafFK">allegorical</a> language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer.
<a href="/facts/Archer_Taylor/q8xRD0VC">Archer Taylor</a> says that "we can probably say that riddling is a universal art" and cites riddles from hundreds of different cultures including Finnish, Hungarian, American Indian, Chinese, Russian, Dutch, and Filipino sources amongst many others.: 3  Many riddles and riddle-themes are internationally widespread.
In the assessment of <a href="/facts/Elli_K%C3%B6ng%C3%A4s-Maranda/LqGJJ8aS">Elli Köngäs-Maranda</a> (originally writing about <a href="/facts/Malaita/yyaaHpKJ">Malaitian</a> riddles, but with an insight that has been taken up more widely), whereas <a href="/facts/Myth/kG8UTfem">myths</a> serve to encode and establish social norms, "riddles make a point of playing with conceptual boundaries and crossing them for the intellectual pleasure of showing that things are not quite as stable as they seem" — though the point of doing so may still ultimately be to "play with boundaries, but ultimately to affirm them".

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Riddle