Story: The Best Riddler of Them All

ONCE UPON A TIME, I was a goblin named Riddle.  I lived in a sissoo tree within a vast cemetery, which was perfect since I relish my peace and quiet.  Unfortunately, people would occasionally interfere with my business, so I would disguise myself as a dead body hanging from the tree (It was a cemetery after all!).  I lived this way for many years, doing deals with the occasional passerby who could solve one of my riddles.  No one ever solved more than one of my tricky riddles! That is, until HE came along…

I’d been living in my tree for maybe 50 years when a man came by in the dead of night.  Instead of simply walking by, however, he cut me down from the tree! And then he slung me over his back like a sack of potatoes! The humiliation! I kicked and screamed for a few moments before I remembered that if he answered on of my riddles, I would return to my tree.  I could go back and finish my dinner and forget about this embarrassing situation.

And so I told him a riddle, and being the smart king that he was, he answered it and I returned to my tree.  But the bastard followed me back! Again and again I told him one of my riddles, and again and again he answered them true.  I thought that eventually he would give up and leave me in peace. But noooooo.  The man was incessant, constantly cutting me down and ferrying me back down the cemetery road in the middle of the night.  I suppose I should be glad it wasn’t day time or someone might have seen me being lugged around on the back of this brute!

After 20 riddles, 20 trips back to the tree, and 20 trips back down the cemetery road carried upon his shoulders, I decided to give him my masterpiece of a riddle.  No one had ever answered it correctly.  Not the wizards or witches, not the princes or knights, not even the farseeing oracles of old.  No one had ever figured this riddle out. 

As I told the story, I saw his brow get more and more furrowed.  I could practically see the wheels turning in his head!  I had him! I finally had him! He would answer wrong, his head would burst and I could return to my tree! Unfortunately, that isn’t how this case turned out.  All the wizards, witches, princes, knights and oracles had tried to answer this riddle and their end had come.  But this king was smarter than the others. 

Since he didn’t know the answer, he actually kept his mouth shut! Have you ever heard of a man doing that?!  They at least try on the off chance that they might be right! But not this man.  He kept silent, which impressed me beyond measure. 

I decided to help this impressive, tenacious man.  I knew that the monk would try to harness my power to become the king of the fairies.  I also knew that this man would be a beneficent ruler to both his human kingdom and that of the fairies.  He was honorable, strong, kind, and smart. 

I warned him of the monk’s plan and told him how to circumvent it.  When we arrived to the meeting place, the king followed my instructions to the letter.  The monk was dead and he was the soon to be king.  But he didn’t want the job or the power.  What he told me next was more impressive than all the riddles he had solved. 

“O magic creature, if you are pleased with me, I have nothing more to wish for. Yet I ask you to make me one promise, that these twenty-two different, charming puzzle-stories shall be known all over the world and be received with honor."

While I was loath to leave my tree, I felt an obligation to fulfill this great man’s wishes.  And so I travelled, for one year telling my riddles to every man, woman, and child that I encountered.  For that year, I even left out the side effects!  After that, I continued to travel, telling my riddles.

I thought that I would miss my old life and the peace and quiet of my tree in the cemetery.  And for a time I did.  However, the farther I travelled, the more I began to enjoy myself.  I enjoyed the new sights and foods, sharing my stories with new people who would never have heard them otherwise. 

To this day, I’m still not sure if the king planned this all along.  Did he know I would enjoy travelling and telling my stories? Or did he just want to share them with the world? 

Author’s Note:

I chose not to do any individual story from the Twenty Two Goblins unit, but to instead do a sort of overview story from the goblin’s (who I called Riddle) point of view.  I kept the story the same, but left out a few details that I didn’t think were entirely necessary.  The original story more follows the king, setting up in his court and revolving around his determination to fulfill his promise to the monk. 

I thought it would be intriguing to write this as if Riddle was telling the story from the present.  She’s looking back on her life and how this moment changed it so drastically.  Few had ever solved her riddles with such confidence and ease, and no one had ever chosen to say nothing when they didn’t know the answer.  I thought it would be fun to show how humiliating it would be for a goblin to be carted around on the shoulders of a man, especially a man as tenacious as the king of these stories.  I also carried it a bit further by telling how she reacted to her travels, coming to enjoy them and the opportunities they afforded her!

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder (1917), Sacred Texts. 
Image Info: Sissoo Tree. Source: Wikipedia.