Toward a Theory of the Literary Riddle

Abstract Every proper riddle must fulfill two conditions: the first is its social function as a competition between the riddler and riddlees; the second is its literary form, which must be difficult and enigmatic, yet containing the clues needed to decipher it. Each of these conditions, the social and literary, is necessary, yet not sufficient. Only the combination of the two creates a true riddle. In other words, a riddle is only that text which is intended to function as a riddle-a text whose author, or later riddler, deliberately presents it to the reader as a challenge; and, naturally, a riddle is a text able to function as a riddle, a text suited to being a challenge, encoded through various devices, but still soluble through the hints it contains and, through logical deductions, by virtually any addressee, unlike codes in other realms of life. The constant interrelationship between the practical and the textual side is essential to the riddle as a literary genre; this relationship is evident in many ways.