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Author
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Comment
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Joanne
de Pennrunil
Registered User
(7/8/05 6:23 pm)
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Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
I've often been interested in folklore riddles and rhymes. And I am looking to make a collection of them. Might I get some help. I seem to be having trouble finding them, I have a fair few from a couple diffrent superstition sites but I am sure there are more out there. Any help would be wonderful.
Thanks in advance,
DL Dzioba
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(7/8/05 8:07 pm)
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Re: Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
Iona and Peter Opie have several collections of riddles and rhymes.
I'm fond of I Saw Esau:
The Schoolchildren's Pocket Book.
When you say rhymes, do you mean short ones only? If not, there
are some wonderful ballads around, my most recent favorite collection
being Charles Vess' The
Book of Ballads.
Best,
Alice
Edited by: AliceCEB at: 7/9/05 5:40 pm
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Joanne
de Pennrunil
Registered User
(7/8/05 10:04 pm)
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Re: Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
I'd prefer short ones. I'm going to be copying them down into a journal (via quill).
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(7/10/05 3:25 pm)
ezSupporter
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Re: Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
Here's a wonderful site with classic riddles (and their solutions).
These are all European: rec-puzzles.org/riddles.html
I do have a list of African Collections but I have to hunt my files for it to give you the titles.
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Joanne
de Pennrunil
Registered User
(7/10/05 7:19 pm)
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Re: Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
*doubles over in laughter* Rather Ironic... that is the exact riddles site I had bookmarked... rather funny...
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(7/11/05 9:39 am)
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Re: Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
You could also check out various Mother Goose compilations which do include some riddles and folklore-related rhymes. My favorite collection is the one edited by Iona Opie (of course) and beautifully illustrated by Rosemary Wells.
Best,
Alice
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(7/11/05 11:42 am)
ezSupporter
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Re: Looking to collect Riddles and Rhymes
Ah! Here is the citation:
Bynon, James. 1966. Riddle Telling among the Berbers of Central Morocco. African Language Studies 7: 80-104. PubLg: English. Cat: Berber languages.
If you have access to a good university library, I highly recommend this long comprehensive article from 1966. It's fabulous and the riddles are gorgeous. I've used them in my fiction often.
Here's a few of them:
"she gave birth and put paper between them" (a pomegranate...the paper being the membrane between the layers of seeds)
"the raven provides for the dove, and the dove provides for the chicks" (the kettle, tea-pot and glasses)
"the mare of the doorway of hearing" (an earring)
"he has two wives, yet he sleeps at his mother's place" (the rod which kohl is applied to the eyes, and the eyes, and the kohl tube).
"my crop harvested without irrigation" (wool)
"a stupid little fellow who drags his intestines" (needle and thread)
"a little girl who screamed inside her father" (cartridge and rifle)
On another note: do have a look at the work of the great Archer
Taylor--certainly one of the premier academic scholars on riddles
and proverbs. Here are some of his classic titles (which also should
be available in a good university library:
The Literary Riddle before 1600 (Berkeley 1948) ,
English Riddles from Oral Tradition (Berkeley 1951),
A Collection of Irish Riddles (Berkeley 1955, with Vernam Hull).
Edited by: midori snyder at: 7/11/05 11:44 am
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