Riddle-tales are a genre of folktale involving the solving of a riddle! There are two main Aarne-Thompson folktale types involving riddles: AT 927, Outriddling the Judge and AT 851, The Princess Who Could Not Solve the Riddle. #FolkloreThursday
In tales of AT 927, Outriddling the Judge, a hero avoids death by outriddling a judge with an unsolvable riddle. These riddles are referred to as "neck riddles" because they save the asker's neck. #FolkloreThursday
A tale falling into AT 927 is a contest of wits between Odin & Vafþrúðnir appearing in the Poetic Eda poem Vafþrúðnismál. In this tale, Odin & Vafþrúðnir ask each other questions, until Odin asks a question about the death of Baldr which Vafþrúðnir can't answer. #FolkloreThursday
You can go to this link to learn more about this tale and a bit of the historical context surrounding it and riddles in general in the ancient world: ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-…
Tales of AT 851, The Princess Who Could Not Solve the Riddle includes a riddle posed to a princess which she cannot answer, generally resulting in her marrying the suitor who asked the riddle. Below are two of the most famous of this type. #FolkloreThursday
The Riddle of the Suitor is a folktale from the Brothers Grimm. A prince meets a beautiful princess & she demands that in order to marry her, he must ask her a riddle she cannot answer or be killed. He asks a riddle only he knows the answer to & marries her. #FolkloreThursday
You can read the Riddle of the Suitor here: pitt.edu/~dash/grimm022…
Turandot is an opera set in China but with origins in Persian folklore. In it, a princess challenges her suitors with riddles. When the hero guesses these, she still refuses & he says that if she guesses his name they won't marry. They end up falling in love. #FolkloreThursday
This tale was originally found in Haft Peykar or Bahramnameh, a romantic epic poem by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi. You can read more about the Persian origins of Turandot here: leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/persi…
I hope you enjoyed this thread, and I'll leave you with a (solvable) riddle:
Say my name and I dissappear. What am I?
@threadreaderapp pls unroll
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