Category Archives: Riddle

A Dog Walks into a Forest…

Nationality: Israeli / USA
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/2/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew, Spanish

Folk Piece:

Who far could a dog walk into a forest?

Halfway because after that he’s walking out.

Background information

“Well, this is the first riddle my dad ever gave me. Uh, you know, I enjoy word play and I think it’s just a light switch that makes people’s heads really turn a bit. Riddles are just a fun way to get a conversation started sometimes, and yeah, I don’t know, it’s just fun seeing people try and figure it out”

Context

“Well, uh, like I said it’s the first riddle my dad ever gave me. We’d often toss riddles at each other back and forth – well, like, once I was older. And uh, yeah, I’m not sure where this one came from before my Dad, but I know my Grandfather also enjoyed word play, so if I had to guess it would be from him. Now I have a bunch of them I ask people if they ever come up. ” Sure enough, this riddle came up when exactly that was happening. I’d asked a group of friends if they had any good riddles or jokes, and two of my friends went back and forth with them. This was the first one that was mentioned.

Analysis

When I first heard the informant tell this riddle in the group, I had no idea it was an actually important riddle to him. At the time, I was just jotting the riddles down as they were told back and forth between this participant and another. I guess it would make sense, though, that his favorite riddle would come first.

This would be an example of a true riddle as are most of the riddles the informant would be talking about. Those that have a traditional question and answer, that can be guess based on clues hidden in the riddle itself. I believe this participant does it, however, to test an acquaintances intelligence. Not that he expects the other person to guess it correctly, but I think he expects them to enjoy it because of how clever it is. This participant definitely values his intellect and the intellect of his friends, so that would make sense.

 

Indian Riddle- Big and little Indian

Age: 47

Indian Riddle

 

Primary Language- English

Occupation- Head of Marketing Department

Residence- Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance- 4/25/16

Riddle- There are two Indians: a big Indian, and a little Indian. the little Indian is the big Indian’s son but the big Indian is not the little Indian’s father. How is this possible?

Answer- the big Indian is the little Indian’s mother

Elizabeth learned this riddle when she was a child. Her parents were waiting in line with her and they decided to kill time with a riddle. They asked her this riddle and she simply could not figure it out. She spent the whole time in line and the trip back home trying to figure out the riddle. There was no internet when she was a kid so she could not just ask google. It took her two days to finally realize that the riddle was very simple and the big indian was the little indians’ mother. She will always remember the riddle because of how long it took her to find an easy answer and for her, it will always remain an indian riddle.

The riddle can be used anywhere anytime. There are many publications of this riddle all over the internet. There are used to pass by time or test someone’s brain power.

Riddles like these can provide a great time. They are really simple but some people think they are very complex. I had actually asked one of my roommates the same riddle and it took him a good 15 minutes to figure it out! Although the riddle says big Indian and small Indian, all you have to do is change Indian for something like Italian and it people automatically will associate the riddle with Italian and perhaps believe it originated from there. It is an example of how a small change in the documentation of folklore can change its meaning and peoples perspective.

 

“And the Volga empties into the Caspian Sea”

Nationality: Russia
Age: 62
Occupation: Business owner
Residence: Moscow, Russia
Performance Date: April 16, 2016
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English

Alexey Sinyagin

 

Proverb:  “Волга впадает в Каспийское море”

Phonetic: “Volga vpadayet v Kaspiyskoye morye”

“Yeah, and the Volga empties out into the Caspian Sea”

 

Meaning: This proverb is used in a sarcastic way, as a way to signify that you are stating the obvious.

 

Background: This is used between any people in Russia, and references their formal geographic education, which is very strong in Russia and is sometimes mocked because it often lacks practical uses. In addition, Russian formal education often focuses on rote memorization of facts, and knowledge like this would be an example of pointless information that nonetheless everybody knew.

 

Analysis: This mockery of the redundant brings attention to the Russian value of brevity and modesty: at least in respect to not showing off useless facts. Russian humour is often wry and employs irony, so overstated or over-important people will often find themselves mocked. At the same time, the fact that everybody knows a fact like this is a reference to the fact that Russia is such a huge land that learning all of its geography is something many students resent. Comparing such unwanted knowledge, which is also commonly known, is more likely to make the person stating a different obvious fact feel ashamed, and likely feel like a teacher or authority figure. These figures are not usually seen favorably in Russian society on the part of those who they teach or are supposed to control.

Una Adivinaza de Aguacate

Nationality: Costa Rican
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: LA
Performance Date: 4/24/16
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

SB is from Costa Rica. We have been friends for some time, and whenever she cuts avocado I notice she says a little limerick to herself. I asked her what she was saying. She told me: “Agua pasa por mi casa, cate de mi corazón.”

It’s a riddle (adivinaza), and the answer is aguacate, which means “avocado” in Spanish. The phrase literally translates to ” Water runs down my house, it is a punch to my heart.” It is not really apparent what this has to do with avocados, but the solution to the riddle is found in the wordplay. Agua + cate each have meaning on their own in Spanish, but also form the word aguacate.

S explains, “Riddles like these are used to teach kids various fruits in Spanish.” It clearly works, because S remembers this riddle all these years later and still associates it with avocados whenever she has one. I asked her why she thinks there are riddles to learn simple things like fruit, and she explained that aguacate is actually a pretty difficult word for kids to say. This little rhyme, which breaks down the word, helps teach how to say it.

S told me another one of her favorites:

Tiene ojos y no ve,

posee corona y no es rey,

tiene escamas sin ser pez,

¿qué rara cosa ha de ser?

Which means:

It has eyes and doesn’t see,

It has a crown and isn’t a king,

It has scales but is not a fish,

What rare thing could it be?

The answer is piña, a pineapple.

Throughout my time collecting folklore, I’ve noticed there are a lot of rhymes and riddles in various cultures that are meant to teach kids simple things like manners or words. These riddles stimulate creative thinking at a young age. Riddles are not always obvious and you have to connect the puns or wordplay to come up with the right answer. Folklore is a prominent part of children’s development. I believe a majority of what children learn in their early ages is through folklore; before they can read, kids pick up what people are talking about around them. Learning culture is just as important as learning to read and write, and folklore teaches this.

Riddle: Foreheads

Nationality: European American
Age: 9
Occupation: Student
Residence: CA
Performance Date: 03/05/2016
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: “There is a pool…no there is a clear pool…with no people in it. Twenty people jump in. And twenty four heads pop up. How is that possible? There are no people in the pool…wait delete that…the answer is twenty four heads pop up…how is that possible? And then I don’t really know how to tell you the answer…I do actually…the answer is: there is really…do CAPS for this… twenty four HEADS…that’s it….wait…yes that’s it”

Background Information: The informant is nine years old. He is a little socially awkward, so his speech may seem choppy. He heard this riddle in Idaho from his friends, Ruby and Sky. He likes this riddle because he says, “it’s challenging and it’s a good play on words.” The informant continues to tell this riddle to his friends at school.

Performance Context: The informant sat across from me at his dining room table.

My Thoughts: The informant seems to enjoy this riddle and want to share it with me because of the ways words can have multiple meanings. He notes the ways in which trickery through riddles challenges traditional notions of understanding language. His friends passed the folklore to him and now he passes it onto his friends as well. Once a receiver of the folklore, the informant is now the teller, using a verbal method transfer this piece of folklore.