A riddle is a riddle.
The notion of riddle can refer to a divination (predicting the future, discovering the hidden, guessing what an enigma means) or to a riddle (an enigma that is proposed as a hobby).
The usual thing is that the riddle, like a riddle, is stated in the form of a rhyme . For example: “Round, round, bottomless barrel… what is it?” (a ring), “Always still, always still: during the day, asleep; at night, you wake up” (the stars).
Riddles in education and culture
Riddles are usually aimed at children so that they deduce the names of animals, fruits, objects, etc. In this sense, riddles have an educational component beyond the recreational one, which seeks the mental development of the little ones. When faced with a riddle, the child must pay attention to the statement, analyze it and reason to find the answer . The rhyming formulation, for its part, helps the playful aspect.
Just like proverbs, riddles are part of the popular culture of each region. A characteristic of riddles is that they are usually anonymous: they are transmitted from generation to generation, adapting to the idioms and characteristics of each era, but always through oral communication.
By referring to elements of daily use or very present in daily life (such as utensils, food, parts of the anatomy, domestic animals or components of nature), riddles help the socialization of the child and the transmission of cultural values. There are more complex riddles for adults that may even require performing various mathematical calculations.
Solving a riddle requires the development of reasoning.
A poetic form
As a poetic form , riddles have a place of great importance in the literary tradition of different cultures since time immemorial, especially because they give rise to transformations and adaptations, and have managed to form part of the roots of popular taste. It is a verbal game that combines lyric and wit for the enjoyment of people of all ages, drawing on the resources of rhetoric and metrics to build a structure that is simple on the surface, but enigmatic and challenging on the inside.
The adaptation of the riddle covers the social , historical and cultural aspects of each country, each city, to allow it to continue its mission of communicating ancestral knowledge through entertainment. It is worth mentioning that the age of the riddle, although it is difficult to specify, must be counted in centuries.
Basic structure of the riddle
The basic structure of a riddle, from a grammatical point of view, usually has resources typical of traditional popular poetry, such as assonant or crossed consonant rhyme in octosyllabic quatrains, the use of simile, allegory, metonymy, metaphor. , the dilogy, the linguistic breakdown, the analogy and the parallelistic form, and the verses of minor art, among other elements.
Studying the etymology of the word divine, interesting relationships are found with the need that has always characterized our species to reveal the hidden , to transcend our nature to connect with the divine . To this end, humans have explored a large number of techniques, many of which include performing rituals with magic, chanting, and the consumption of substances.
Although riddles have a much more innocent character than the invocation of a deceased being or a god, they are a reflection of the enjoyment that comes from finding what has been covered by mystery , finding what others have hidden from our sight. , to feel powerful, to taste victory even if it is only by overcoming a small, childish-looking challenge.
According to the study of some specialists, the riddle was born in the form of a riddle and, once it used the aforementioned poetic resources, it completed its metamorphosis to become the verbal game that we know today.