Neck riddle

The neck riddle is a riddle where the riddler (typically a hero in a folk tale) gains something with the help of a non-solvable riddle: saves his life, wins a hand of a princess, etc. The name comes from the folk tales of type "Out-riddling the judge" (Aarne–Thompson classification system for folk tales #927), when the hero saves his neck by out-riddling the judge. [1][2]

References

  1. Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art, Volume 1, edited by Thomas A. Green, p. 587
  2. Dorst, John D. (Oct–Dec 1983). "Neck-Riddle as a Dialogue off Genres: Applying Bakhtin's Genre Theory". Journal of American Folklore 96 (382): 413–433. JSTOR 540982.
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