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The device of riddling is common to most traditional cultures.

Maidens set riddles for their suitors: ‘What is sweeter than mead…?’ ‘What is whiter than snow…?’ ‘What is lighter than a spark…?’

Antagonists use riddles to settle their disputes: ‘Forty white horses on a red hill first they gnash then they champ then they stand still…?’ ‘What is blacker than the raven…?’ ‘What is swifter than the wind…?’

Divinities play hide and seek with their devotees within the miasmic form of riddles: ‘What dances on the surface of the water…?’ ‘What good did Man find on earth that God did not…?’ ‘What is sharper than the sword…?’

A riddle is one thing, or a collection of things, described as another thing, or a different collection of things.

It is an extended metaphor without its point of reference.

To solve a riddle is to gain clarity and rid one self…