{"id":2637,"date":"1998-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1998-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/1998\/06\/14\/xx-unknown\/"},"modified":"2018-01-14T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T04:39:09","slug":"xx-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/1998\/06\/14\/xx-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"xx: What Has It Got in Its Pocketses?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n

As any algebraist or fan of The X Files<\/cite> knows, x<\/i> often symbolizes an unknown quantity. This week's column is full of unknown quantities.<\/p>\r\n

In a previous column<\/a>, I discussed Anglo-Saxon riddles, which used a certain alliterative form and often suggested a risqu\u00e9 answer as well as the mundane one. I neglected to mention, however, that the modern equivalent of such riddles is thriving on the Web, and lives on in the oral tradition.<\/p>\r\n

Of course, not all such riddles are particularly good. There are very common themes, for instance; most of the modern guess-what-I-am riddles I've seen are answered by one of a small set of items: time, wind, fire, water, mirror, leaf, and so on. And some riddles are so vague that any number of answers could apply. Also, most riddles don't care much for rhyme or scansion. Still, I'm pleased that this kind of creative guessing-game is still practiced (and even somewhat popular)\u2014I like the idea of metaphor as a regular part of everyday life. For more information on modern poem-riddles, see Eric S. Raymond's superb riddles page<\/a>. (Unfortunately, Sherri Johnson's excellent riddle pages seem to have gone AWOL recently.)<\/p>\r\n

Here are some riddles created and contributed by Jeepsie. Ta doesn't like to give away the answers to riddles; I haven't yet guessed some of these. Feel free to join me in guessing by sending in answers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Tower for a cold queen;
\r\nDeath for the donor;
\r\nTickled by a master;
\r\nWealthy is the owner.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Stronger than a mountain,
\r\nSlower than a snail;
\r\nBlue as a cornflower,
\r\nColder than hail.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

A monster, a giant, my size ever grows,
\r\nMy tale ever stretches, yet only one knows
\r\nHow fierce is my bite, and how great is my strength,
\r\nWhich grows and grows with every drink.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Gathers the corn without a word spoken;
\r\nFirst fleece shorn, a circle unbroken;
\r\nFirst choice given to the mountain or worm,
\r\nAnd the forest before a blade or burn.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

A story many thousands of years old,
\r\nAt a single glance it can be told,
\r\nOf a queen trapped by her lust for gold,
\r\nUnrescued by a knight so bold,
\r\nNow a treasure to be bought or sold.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\r\n

Below your thoughts I am sent [scent] for you;
\r\nAbove your words I invent [in vent] for you.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Jeepsie is fond of puns and a proponent of the oral tradition; ta wouldn't let me include one particularly punny original riddle on the grounds that writing it down would ruin it. There's something to be said for that\u2014though there's also something to be said for preserving and disseminating the oral tradition in written form. As the Anglo-Saxons might have put it, the written word is worm-bane, saving thoughts beyond the lives of their originators...<\/p>\r\n

Anyway, here are a couple more riddles, of unknown provenance:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

What is it you break even as you name it?<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

What is it that a contented man desires,
\r\nA wealthy man requires,
\r\nAnd a poor man has,
\r\nMisers spend, and spendthrifts save,
\r\nAnd all men carry to their grave?<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

I went on a hunt with a view to kill.
\r\nThose that I caught, I kept with me not;
\r\nThose I did not are with me still<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

I was going to include a riddle of my own:<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Round and smooth or rough and gritty,
\r\nMade of stone but not a city,
\r\nHard as rock, and grey or brown,
\r\nBoulders, pebbles, break it down.
\r\nStub your toe, skip on a lake,
\r\nGrind your flour before you bake,
\r\nBuild a church, your soul to save;
\r\nUse it then to mark your grave.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

But I figured the answer would be too hard to guess, so I'll give it to you: it's a rock. (If you didn't get it, don't be too hard on yourself; rock lyrics are always hard to understand.)<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Answers can be found on the reader comments page<\/a>, except for \"Gathers the corn...,\" which I still haven't guessed.<\/p>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-llowercase-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}