The Quintessential Verbal Art

The riddle combines the qualities of the verbal arts in a nutshell: Riddling is community art par excellence, since it is interactive by nature. Indeed for the most part oral literature is essentially social rather than individual. Many genres in verbal art show signs of remarkable invariance over time, place and performer, while at the same time improvisation is allowed. Riddles are no exception in that they are highly standardized on the one hand and allow variation at the same time because new riddles are composed. Functionally, riddles, like other genres of verbal art such as stories, not only have recreational but also moral and educational uses.

The pleasure of riddling lies in the beauty of expression. An example of metaphorical reference can be seen in the riddle “the tobacco of Tarmo Arko sleeps in the ear” to which the solution is “the wedge” which is between the top “ear” of the pillar and the crossbeam. The image of tobacco that is kept behind the ear refers to the wedge, at the same time “ear” refers to the top part of the pillar which is called “the ear of the pillar”.