Man has been telling riddles for thousands of years. They are fun to tell and even more fun to solve! You can also come up with riddles to share with friends and family.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Preparation
Step 1. Read many riddles
This will help you understand how they work. You can find many riddle books, or you can search the internet.
- Many cultures have a long tradition of riddles. Viking and Anglo-Saxon riddles are still very popular with English speakers today, even though they were first spoken over 1000 years ago! These riddles often have simple solutions like "key" or "onion", but they are told creatively. You can find many collections online.
- Riddles are also quite common in modern fantasy literature, movies, and television shows. The book "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien has an entire chapter devoted to "Riddles in the Dark" told between two characters.
Step 2. Decide on the topic of the riddle
You can imagine all kinds of riddles, but the most common topics are physical objects that people know well.
- The other topics are natural phenomena such as storms and snow, animals or an action.
- Avoid topics that are very abstract or that require specific knowledge.
Step 3. Determine the length of the riddle
Some are very short, just a sentence or two, while others are miniature stories. You can create a riddle of your own length, but it shouldn't be long enough to confuse the listener.
- Here is an example of a very short riddle from the Anglo-Saxon "Book of Exeter", written in the year 900 AD. "As if by a miracle / I am water and I become bone" (Answer: ice on a lake).
- Here's an example of a longer riddle from the Book of Exeter: "When I'm alive I don't speak. / Anyone who wants to catch me cuts my head off. / Bites my naked body / I don't hurt anyone but the one who cuts me. / Soon then, I'll make them cry "(Answer: the onion).
Part 2 of 2: Creating Your Riddle
Step 1. Start with the answer
Once you have the answer to your riddle, you can proceed backwards to create it. Try to choose something that is easy to personify, because personification (the attribution of human qualities to non-human objects) is a widely used technique in riddles.
You could, for example, choose "a pencil" as a solution, because most people know that object
Step 2. Think about the actions the answer takes and what it looks like
Make a list of these ideas. Try to think about verbs and adjectives in particular. Think of synonyms with multiple meanings and write them down.
- For "pencil", here are some items you might include in the list: "No. 2" (the most common type of writing pencil)), "wood," "eraser," "yellow," "pink hat" (the eraser), "resembles the letter 'I' or the number '1'" (physical aspects of the pencil shape).
- You could also include other aspects of the pencil: for example, it needs to be sharpened after writing, which will make it shorter and shorter with use.
- Another common trick is to think about the actions that the object can perform: the pencil, for example, is small, but it contains everything (because you can write "everything" with a pencil).
Step 3. Write a draft of the riddle
Riddles use metaphors to describe familiar objects in unusual ways. Think about the list of ideas you compiled in the last step. If the solution is "pencil", think about the words you could use to create a metaphorical description: "stick for the hands" or "yellow sword" are complex ways to describe a pencil, but they still offer clues to the solution.
- Here is a riddle that uses a metaphor to describe a pencil: "A golden sword wearing a pink hat, is two trees, both Number 1 and Number 2.
- The pencil is a "sword" because it has a pointed side. This description also recalls the common saying "The pen of the sword kills more" and can give a clue. The "pink hat" refers to rubber.
- The "two trees" are cedar (the most common type of wood for making pencils), and the rubber tree (which produces the eraser on the back tip of the pencil).
- The pencil looks like the number "1", but is actually a "# 2" pencil. This description is a double pun, because pencil # 2 is the most common pencil, or "number one".
Step 4. Use simple and powerful words
Riddles were originally a form of oral rather than written literature, so think about what the riddle sounds like when you say it. Try not to burden it with complex words or abstract concepts.
- A simple riddle that has a pencil answer could be: "This thing is small but it contains everything; the longer you use it, the shorter it gets."
- Here is an example of a famous riddle from "The Hobbit" that uses simple descriptive language: "Without lid, key, or hinge / a casket hides a golden sphere" (Answer: an egg).
Step 5. Personify the solution
Another way to create a nice riddle is to write it as if the solution talks about itself. It starts with "I" and a verb.
This riddle, which has a pencil as its solution, uses personification and a metaphor: "I wear a pink hat but I have no head; I am sharp but I have no brain. I can say everything, but I never say a word."
Step 6. Think about how the riddle sounds
Since riddles are often passed down orally, paying attention to the sound of the language will help you create a better riddle. Techniques like alliteration (the repeated use of sounds) and rhyme help make the riddle easier to pronounce and remember.
- For example "I'm wearing a cpink appeal but I have not capo repeats the sound "c" to create a nice alliteration.
- Here is a very poetic riddle, the solution of which is a common tool: "I drink the blood of the Earth, / and the trees fear my roar, / but a man holds me in his hands." (Answer: a power saw.)
- In some cases, riddles use "kenningar", which are figurative poetic descriptions of something simple - a riddle within a riddle! In the previous riddle, "the blood of the Earth" is gasoline, which the chainsaw uses as fuel. This technique was very common in medieval Norse literature.
Step 7. Share riddles with friends
The best way to know if the riddle you have created works is to share it with friends and family and ask them to try to solve it. By sharing riddles with friends and family, you might even get them to try and come up with their own!
Step 8. Edit the riddle if necessary
If friends and family immediately guess the answer, you may want to go back to the riddle to make it less literal. If, on the other hand, the solution is too difficult, you should modify the words chosen to make the answer more evident.
Advice
- Don't get nervous and take your time, you'll soon be able to come up with a fun riddle!
- Ask a friend for help. If you're stuck, ask a friend if they can help you come up with ideas for your chosen topic. It can be fun to create a riddle together!
- Try to enter vague but pertinent phrases intended to confuse the puzzle solver. It is not necessary, but it can be useful if your riddle is too easy.
