Editing Riddle (section)

===Research===

Much academic research on riddles has focused on collecting, cataloguing, defining, and typologising riddles. Key work on cataloguing and typologising riddles was published by [[Antti Aarne]] in 1918–20,<ref name="ReferenceA">Antti Aarne, ''Vergleichende Rätselforschungen'', 3 vols, Folklore Fellows Communications, 26–28 (Helsinki/Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918–20).</ref> and by [[Archer Taylor]].<ref>Archer Taylor, ''A Bibliography of Riddles'', Folklore Fellows Communications, 126 (Helsinki, 1939).</ref> In the case of ancient riddles recorded without solutions, considerable scholarly energy also goes into proposing and debating solutions.<ref>E.g. Patrick J. Murphy, ''Unriddling the Exteter Riddles'' (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011).</ref>

Whereas previously researchers had tended to take riddles out of their social performance contexts, the rise of [[anthropology]] in the post-War period encouraged more researchers to study the social role of riddles and riddling,<ref>E.g. David Evans, "Riddling and the Structure of Context", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 89 (1976), 166–88; {{doi|10.2307/539688}}; {{JSTOR|539688}}; Annikki Kaivola-Bregenhøj, ''[http://oa.finlit.fi/site/books/detail/12/riddles/ Riddles: Perspectives on the Use, Function, and Change in a Folklore Genre]'', Studia Fennica, Folkloristica, 10 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2001), {{doi|10.21435/sff.10}}.</ref> highlighting their role of re-orienting reality in the face of fear and anxiety.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boryslawski |first=Rafal |date=2019 |editor-last=Wehlau |editor-first=Ruth |title=Into the Darkness First: Neoplatonism And Neurosis In Old English Wisdom Poetry |url=https://www.academia.edu/40163906/Into_the_Darkness_First_Neoplatonism_And_Neurosis_In_Old_English_Wisdom_Poetry |journal=Darkness, Depression and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England}}</ref> However, wide-ranging studies of riddles have tended to be limited to Western countries, with Asian and African riddles being relatively neglected.<ref>A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, ''Courtly Riddles: Enigmatic Embellishments in Early Persian Poetry'' (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2010), 14–18.</ref>

Riddles have also attracted linguists, often studying riddles from the point of view of [[semiotics]];<ref>Elli Köngäs Maranda, "Riddles and Riddling: An Introduction", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 89 (1976), 127–37 (pp. 135–37); {{doi|10.2307/539686}}; {{JSTOR|539686}}.</ref><ref>Claudia Schittek, ''Die Sprach- und Erkenntnisformen der Rätsel'' (Stuttgart: M und P, Verlag für Wissenschaft und Forschung, 1991): {{ISBN|978-3-476-45007-4}}; {{doi|10.1007/978-3-476-04165-4}}.</ref> meanwhile, the twenty-first century has seen the rise of extensive work on medieval European riddles from the point of view of [[eco-criticism]], exploring how riddles can inform us about people's conceptualisation and exploration of their environment.<ref>Helen Price, ‘Human and NonHuman in Anglo-Saxon and British Postwar Poetry: Reshaping Literary Ecology’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 2013).</ref><ref>Mercedes Salvador-Bello, ''Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata'', Medieval European Studies, 17 (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2015).</ref><ref>Corinne Dale, ''The Natural World in the Exeter Book Riddles'' (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2017).</ref><ref>James Paz, ''Nonhuman Voices in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Material Culture'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017).</ref><ref>Erin Sebo, ''In Enigmate: The History of a Riddle, 400–1500'' (Dublin: Four Courts, 2018).</ref>