What is a riddle?

When I think of the word riddle, two thoughts immediately come to mind, challenge and fun. The challenge is in the form of a problem, intellectual in nature and thereby challenging one to think. For thought is the process by which riddles are solved. This challenge directly leads to
the fun. For me, the fun is two-fold, both in the pursuit of the solution and the satisfaction in arriving at it.

Unlike many types of problems, riddles often intentionally attempt to deceive. Although each riddle contains all of the information required for solution, the information is
typically presented in such a way as to mislead. As a result, solving a riddle may require looking at things in a different light. This may require understanding a play on words or a metaphoric relationship. In any case, thought, with an emphasis on creativity, is typically required. Although the ability to access information (i.e. recall facts) is required to properly understand a riddle, the thought process and its development are imperative to its solution.
This is illustrated within the following riddle.

What has teeth but cannot bite?

In order to solve this riddle a certain knowledge is required, specifically the multiple meaning of the word “teeth”. “Teeth” are commonly associated with those found in ones
mouth, but this need not be the case. It is commonly known that “teeth” are also found on both a saw and a comb. However, the key element to the solution is the association of the different meanings within the context of the riddle. To perform this association, the thought process is required. Most people are aware of the fact that a comb and a saw have “teeth”, yet many would never associate either with the solution of this riddle. In fact, both are viable solutions. Riddles differ from most other types of problems in that the process by which they are solved can not be qualified. In other words, there is no series of steps to be followed that
will lead to the solution. Although there may be effective methods by which to attack riddles, these methods are general rules such as “identify words with multiple meanings” or “understand what each statement really means”. Both of these may be great ideas for some riddles, but may be entirely ineffective for others. On the contrary for example, when adding a list of decimal numbers, part of the process is to align the decimal points, so that all of the
“ones”, “tens” and “hundreds” (etc.) are in the same column. In order to solve this type of problem, it is important to perform this step. If not, the discovery of the sum will be difficult. Quite simply, there is no algorithm by which riddles can be solved. There is no computer
program in which information can be fed, and the solution output. Because of this, it is believed that riddles serve as an excellent introduction to elementary problem solving and its development.

Types of Riddles

There are many different types of riddles and numerous ways of categorizing them. It was claimed by Aristotle that riddles are closely related to metaphors. This is true for a large number of riddles. In fact, metaphoric riddles dominate riddles from the past and are commonly used in many cultures today as an intellectual game. However,riddles have broadened to include non-metaphoric relationships as well. Many of todays riddles are written
for children and therefore often lack the deep connections often associated with metaphoric riddles.

True Riddles

True riddles are riddles in which something is described accurately, yet in an obscure way, as to deceive. As previously indicated, all the facts required to solve the riddle are presented, but not necessarily in an obvious way. Two of my favorite true riddles are the following:

What is full of holes yet holds water?

What gets wet when drying?

Both riddles are succinctly stated and describe known and commonly used objects. However, both are deceptive and may prompt questions such as “How can something hold water if it’s full of holes?” or “How can something get wet when it’s drying?”. Even when knowing the solutions, I still think of a bucket and clothes when these riddles are posed. However, it is fully known that a bucket that holds water is not full of holes (it only has one hole at the top)
and clothes certainly don’t get wet when hung out to dry. The solutions to these true riddles are a sponge and a towel respectively. As with most riddles, once the solution is known, solving the riddle becomes “easy”! True riddles are both fun and thought provoking. They serve as excellent “nuts to be cracked” as they are often succinct, easily stated and understood by children. However, in order to obtain their solution, creative thought is often required.

Rhyming Riddles

Rhyming riddles make use of a catchy, often rhythmic, rhyme to deceptively describe something that is commonly known. The following is a simple rhyming riddle:

I come out of the blue
to say “hello” back to you!

The answer to this riddle is an echo, which seems to appear from the “blue”, a metaphor for sky, to say “hello” back to your original “hello”. This riddle illustrates the difficulty in categorizing riddles, as it is a Rhyming, True and Metaphoric Riddle all in one! As with true riddles, rhyming riddles pose excellent, thought provoking problems for children. In addition, their rhyme and rhythm add a bit of flare. Rhyming riddles are fun to solve and create, a challenge for both children and adults.

Associative Riddles

Associative riddles come in many forms, but typically make use of words that either have multiple meanings (e.g. wind) or homonyms, words that sound the same (e.g. bear and bare). Here is a good example that also makes use of a rhyme.

A tree in the sand
or part of your hand

This is an associative riddle on the word “palm”. A “palm”tree grows on the beach (or in the sand) while the “palm” is also part of your hand. These are fun and often rhyming riddles that are great for children to both solve and create. Associative riddles may also make use of puns or plays on words. These riddles make use of words that have multiple meanings, and are often very difficult to solve as the following illustrates.

What is the difference between a Jailer and a Jeweler?

The answer says it all, “one watches cells and the other sells watches”. This riddle uses the multiple meaning of the word “watch” as well as the homonyms, “sell” and “cell”. This riddle and others like it are extremely difficult to solve, even when aware of the use of a pun or play on words. Although solving such a riddle would provide great satisfaction, the really beauty is in creating and posing this type of riddle. It requires a lot of thought, understanding and creativity to develop such a riddle. As a result, it is believed that these riddles, although extremely creative, should be used primarily to illustrate the creativity within riddling and not necessarily as problems for beginning riddlers.

Metaphoric Riddles

Metaphoric Riddles make use of metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a literal phrase is used as an analogy. Metaphoric riddles have been used throughout history across cultures to both illustrate ideas and pose problems. In both cases, a keen sense of intellect is
required to understand the true meaning of what was presented. Probably the most famous metaphoric riddle is the riddle of the Sphinx:

What has one voice,
Goes on four legs in the mourning
Two in the afternoon and
Three in the evening

In ancient Egypt, the Sphinx posed this riddle to travelers to the city of Thebes. Incorrect answers reportedly lead to one’s demise. Only Oedipus could answer the riddle: “Man, who as a baby crawls on all fours, in the prime of life walks upright and in old age, requires a cane”. With this, the Sphinx took her own life and Oedipus became king. This riddle uses “day” metaphorically for a “lifetime”. In addition, “legs” are really not legs, but instead a metaphor for how one moves. Once the metaphoric relationships are revealed and understood, the riddle becomes much easier to solve. However, both revealing and understanding these relationships is the key to solving the riddle.

Metaphors are also used in longer, story-like Extended Metaphoric Riddles. These riddles are common throughout many African cultures, both in the past and present. They tell a story which is entirely made up of variations on a single metaphoric theme. The riddle of the Sphinx could easily be extended to an Extended Metaphoric riddle by telling a story of a “day”of this creature as follows:

Rising to the dawn of a new day. Attentive to all that moves. On four legs this creature moves throughout the morning in search of new and exciting prey. As the sun grows in the sky, this creature too grows with it, until it reaches its full height. Now on two legs this creature moves, knowing all in search of its prey. But as the sun sinks in the sky, this creature too will lag. Now on three legs this creature moves, thinking of the morning hours towards much slower prey.

The answer, as before, is man. However this time, the riddle is in the form of a story. Initially, these riddles are extremely difficult due to their very ambiguous and seemingly unrelated theme. However, once the general idea of metaphor is grasped, these riddles are often the
most creative and ingenious to both create and solve. For more advanced riddlers, both Metaphoric and Extended Metaphoric Riddles are an excellent way to stimulate intellectual creativity.

Joke Riddles

Joke Riddles are typically short, fast and humorous (at least to children). There are numerous books containing only joke riddles. Unfortunately, they are often difficult to solve, yet require very little problem solving ability. The best and probably most famous joke riddle is the following:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The answer is obviously “to get to the other side”. It is obvious only because it has been repeated so many times. To someone who has never heard this riddle, the solution would be difficult to obtain and upon having been revealed, they may be disappointed. However, this one riddle has accounted for multitudes of similar riddles that are basically variations on the theme. Here are a few:

Why did the monkey cross the road? (He was tied to the back of the chicken)
Why did the chicken wear a coat? (It was cold crossing the road)
Why did the corn kernel cross the road? (It was being chased by the chicken)

The absurdity of these riddles can escalate indefinitely. Regardless, children like them and can easily make there own variations. In addition to this type of joke riddle, there is another type of joke riddle called a catch riddle. Catch riddles ask a simple question to which the answer is the obvious solution as the following illustrates:

What student wears the largest gloves? (The one with the largest hands)

These riddles are often used in the middle of other riddles as a trick. Once someone is in a riddling rhythm, that is they have successfully understood and solved a series of riddles, a catch riddle can be given to break up the theme. When posed in this manner, the catch riddle will be viewed as a serious riddle in stead of one with an obvious solution. This will serve as a joke or a break in the stream of more thought provoking riddles that preceded it.