I feel impelled to jump into this discussion. As a storyteller and singer of ballads, I LOVE riddles. I often include them in my programs. Modern riddles invariably get a laugh (Why did King Arthur write "King Arthur loves Mary" on the walls of Camelot? He couldn't spell Guinevere.) But the old riddles get the most interest, like this one from "Mother Goose": "White bird featherless/Flew from Paradise/Pitched on the castle wall/Along came Lord Landless/Took it up handless/And rode away horseless/To the King's white hall." (I'll let you figure it out.)

Riddles and riddling are ancient. I think that back when the world was young, riddles made their appearance just after storytelling and just before singing. They appear in Greek mythology, the Bible, and the Norse Edda, to mention just three works of obvious antiquity.

In the Child canon of ballads, they appear as Number One (that says a lot) "Riddles Wisely Expounded" and in #46 "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship". #1 are very old riddles of the "What is higher than a tree, deeper than the sea" variety, and #45 are the cherry without a stone, chicken without a bone variety - equally old.

Riddles have long been associated with courting, and in the context of the ballads mentioned are used as such. In #1 the suitor is actually the devil in disguise. The maiden saves herself from a fate worse than death by answering the last riddle with the devil's name, which defeats him. The power of a person's name is well-known in folklore. In #46, there is no supernatural aspect, and the suitor is a mere mortal. The ballad ends happily for the Captain, and, one would hope, for the maiden as well.

The riddles in #1 sometimes "bleed" over to #3 "The False Knight on the Road", and the riddles from #46 "bleed" over to #47 "Proud Lady Margaret" where the suitor is actually the proud lady's dead brother, returned as a revenant to take the haughty lady down a peg.

I get goosebumps every time I sing these ancient riddle ballads. Their very antiquity is what does it for me. I feel rooted.

How can these riddles be considered boring? True, I know the answers, but I also know how "Hamlet" turns out, but that doesn't stop me from attending a production. I know that Mimi dies at the end of "La Boheme" but that doesn't stop me from crying every time I hear/see it.

Is a medieval cathedral boring because it's not made of steel and glass? Is Chaucer boring because he uses language not heard on the streets today? Is an old woman boring because she's not a nubile 20-year old?

Alice Kane, mentor to so many Canadian storytellers, once said, "That story you told is five hundred years old." She paused. "You," she said, "will never be five hundred years old."

Amen.

Lorne Brown