Markup View

Author: LordGro

Aug 17th 2013 at 4:54:43 AM

Since this is UpForGrabs, I'm reviving this with a new description. A few points to consider:
* The former write-up defined this as a contest where the two opponents riddle each other alternately. But there are many instances where the riddling is one-way, and it is always the same character that poses the riddle and the other trying to solve them. I therefore introduced a three-variants distinction.
* Some of the examples given are not true ''Riddle'' Contests, but Tests of Knowledge. I guess these should be treated as a related but different trope.

I removed these exampls:
-->A ''Howard & Nester'' comic about ''[[MegaMan Mega Man II]]'' had Nester challenging a robotic Howard built by Dr. Wily to a contest asking each other questions about the game. Nester wins after a long battle when, instead of a game question, he wonders aloud how to get out of Wily's Castle. The robot had never been outside of the castle, so it didn't know how, making Nester the winner despite Wily's protests.
A test of knowledge, not a riddle contest.
-->This is the plot of the Lay of Vafthrudnir, from Norse mythology.  Odin, disguised as Gagnrath, travels to the hall of Vafthrudnir and challenges the eponymous giant Vafthrudnir, wisest of the Jotuns, to a riddle contest.  Vafthrudnir wagers his head against his guest's, and loses.  This story, and particularly Odin's winning question, may have inspired the example from ''The Hobbit''.
Odin's and Vafthrudnir's contest is about knowledge, not about riddles.
-->In the Book of Judges in the Bible, Samson wages a riddle contest against his Philistine in-laws. This one was to the death.
There is only one riddle posed by Samson to the relatives of his bride, and the stake is not death, but thirty sets of fancy clothes. Sufficiently covered in RiddleMeThis.
--->It should be noted that riddle contests (not to the death) have been a traditional form of entertainment at Jewish feasts and celebrations at various points in history.
{{Natter}}. Can someone confirm that this is true? If yes, it could go (with appropriate rewriting) to the [[AC:Real Life]] folder.