Scandinavian riddles

Riddles (Old Norse, Icelandic and Faroese gáta, pl. gátur; Bokmål and Nynorsk gåte, pl. gåter; Danish gåde, pl. gåder; Swedish gåta, pl. gåtor) are widely attested in post-medieval Scandinavian languages.

Few riddles are attested from medieval Scandinavia (by contrast with the numerous Anglo-Saxon riddles in the quite closely connected literature of medieval England), although Norse mythology does attest to a number of other wisdom-contests, usually involving the god Óðinn, and the complex metaphors of the extensive corpus of skaldic verse present an enigmatic aesthetic similar to riddles.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} A number of riddles from medieval Scandinavia are also attested in Latin.^[5]

The majority of the surviving Old Norse riddles occur in one section of the Icelandic Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks , in which the god Óðinn propounds around 37 verse riddles (depending on the manuscript), mostly in the ljóðaháttur metre; these are known as the Gátur Gestumblinda . The saga is thought to have been composed in the thirteenth century, but the riddles themselves may not be of uniform date and some could be older or younger.^[6] They went on to influence oral riddling in Iceland.^{[7] : 196}

Eight verse riddles, all in ljóðaháttur, are also attested in the Icelandic manuscript fragment Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, AM 687 b 4to, thought to date from between 1490 and 1510.^[8] They seem to come from a collection of at least nineteen riddles and to have originated in Continental Scandinavia around the twelfth or thirteenth century. Their solutions are thought to be steelyard, nail-header, wool-combs, footstool, pot-hook, bell-clapper, fish-hook, and an angelica stalk; one is also attested from oral tradition in Norway and at least three circulated in oral as well as written tradition in Iceland.^[9]

Scattered riddles are found elsewhere in medieval Scandinavian sources. Three medieval riddles in verse about birds are known, first attested in a part of the manuscript Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar AM 625 4to from around 1500.^{[10] [11]} A riddle also appears in the perhaps fourteenth-century Þjalar-Jóns saga ,^{[12] [13]} A runic graffito carved in Hopperstad stave-church that can be read as 'Lokarr fal lokar sinn í lokarspónum' and translated as 'Lokarr ("plane") concealed his plane in the plane-shavings' has also been seen as riddlic in sentiment.^{[14] [15] [16]}

Brynjulf Alver also identified two Scandinavian ballads attested after the Middle Ages and featuring riddle-contests as medieval in origin: På Grønalihei (attested from Norway) and Svend Vonved (attested from Norway, Denmark, and, as Sven Svanevit, Sweden).^[17] På Grønalihei opens with three stanzas about two brothers debating how to share their inheritance; they decide to settle the question through a riddle-contest. Eighteen riddles follow, some of them true riddles and some wisdom-questions, including one biblical riddle.^[18] In Svend Vonved, the riddle-contest is one episode in a longer story of the hero's quest for vengeance.^{[19] [20]}

With the advent of print in the West, collections of riddles and similar kinds of questions began to be published. A large number of riddle collections were printed in the German-speaking world and, partly under German influence, in Scandinavia.^[21] Scandinavian riddles have also been extensively collected from oral tradition. Key collections and studies include:

• Bødker, Laurits 1964 in co-operation with Brynjulf Alver, Bengt Holbek and Leea Virtanen. The Nordic Riddle. Terminology and Bibliography. Copenhagen.
• Jón Árnason, Íslenzkar gátur, skemtanir, vikivakar og Þulur, I (Kaupmannahöfn: Hið Íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1887).
• Olsson, Helmer 1944. Svenska gåtor 1. Folkgåtor från Bohuslän. Uppsala.
• Palmenfelt, Ulf 1987. Vad är det som går och går...? Svenska gåtor från alla tider i urval av Ulf Palmenfelt. Stockholm.
• Peterson, Per 1985. Gåtor och skämt. En undersökning om vardagligt berättande bland skolbarn. Etnolore 4. Skrifter från Etnologiska institutionen vid Uppsala universitet. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet.
• Ström, Fredrik 1937. Svenska Folkgåtor. Stockholm.
• Wessman, V.E.V. (red.) 1949. Finlands svenska folktidning IV. Gåtor. Skrifter utg. av Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland 327. Helsingfors.

The traditional, oral riddle fell out of widespread use during the later twentieth century, being replaced by other oral-literary forms, and by other tests of wit such as quizzes.^[22]

• Humoristen.no - Norwegian riddles
• Gåter.no – collection of Norwegian riddles, categorised
• Collection of Swedish riddles

• Riddles
• Germanic culture