Talking in Riddles.

When Aggie McPartland met the King of the Fairies for the first time he was not pleased to see her. For one thing her feet were too big. This was considered a very serious disadvantage in the kingdom of fairy because it slowed the dance. In the Kingdom of Fairy the dance was all important.

“Why have you come here?” asked the King of the Fairies.

“I don’t know why I have come,” replied Aggie. “I was just minding my own business, not doing anything, not thinking about anything. I was just sitting by the river watching the water flow and it just happened. I found myself here and now I don’t know where I am,” lamented Aggie.

“Ah,” thought the King, “What a lovely way to be in your world. Sure tis no wonder you have fallen out of time. Sure tis no wonder that you have crossed a thin place into the world of Fairy. Sure aren’t you a clever child to find your way into nowhere.
Aggie didn’t feel so clever. She felt confused. She thought this was a very strange place to be. Aggie again thought “I don’t know where I am.”

“Of course you don’t know where you are,” replied the King. “You are in the place of nowhere that is everywhere.” It is the only place you can go by not going. It is the only place you can come to by not thinking about anything. Do you not feel this is the most beautiful of all places that you have never been too.

Aggie thought this nowhere place very strange. She was thinking she would prefer not to be here at all. She thought that this creature who she did not know talked in riddles.

“Sure I talk in riddles,” said the King of the Fairy. “What other way is there to talk. Riddles are the only sensible way to talk.”

“Riddles do not make any sense,” replied Aggie.

“There more sensible than the way you talk, answered the King. “You people from the moral world of time only ever talk with one side of your head. Sure you don’t even talk with the best side either. We fairies at least talk with all of our head. That’s what talking in riddles is all about. You humans in the world of time are only half-brained.

Aggie was not going to argue. She only wanted to go home. She wanted to be back by the river watching the water flow.

The King of Fairy said to Aggie, “Sure why would you want to be going home. Tis this not the most beautiful place. Anyway you can’t go home unless you give us something new and in return we will give you something new.
“Ok,” said Aggie, “what new thing do you want.”

“Well you could teach us a new dance,” laughed the King of the Fairies as he looked down at Aggie`s feet. He thought that there was no way in the world of the timeless that this human child could teach a new dance to the little people. Then he thought that she might teach them a new riddle.

“If you teach us a new riddle that any of us cannot answer then you can go home. Otherwise you will have to stay until you create something new for us in this fairy realm to enjoy.” So let me test you with some of the riddles I have created. This will give you some idea about how to compose a riddle. So it was that in the Kingdom of the Fairies Aggie McPartland learned to compose riddles.

Aggie began to feel upset. She began to feel afraid that she might not find a new riddle that would free her to go home. When she got afraid she got angry. Now Aggie McPartland might only be five years old but she was a little being that you did not want to get on the wrong side of. Then she told the King of the Fairies

“I don’t like you. I don’t like you at all. I don’t think you are very kind and your riddles are stupid. If I’m half brained then you are a quarter brained if that. Stop your silly riddles and your keeping me here. I want to go home now.

Well no one spoke to the King of the Fairies in this way before. All the other fairies held their breath and waited. No one had ever told the King of the Fairies that he was unkind. Worst of all no one had ever implied that the riddles of the King were stupid. This did not bode well for the mortal Aggie McPartland.

In the Kingdom of Fairy there was silence. One could not here anyone breathe other than Aggie McPartland who was now panting slightly. The King too was silent which was very unusual. Then he burst out laughing with excitement. He thought this child to be a wonderful child who could speak her mind so freely. He smiled. Surely he thought this one had some fairy blood in her veins. He thought that she was one of the beautiful people. Maybe he thought she might even be his child.

The more he thought about her fierceness the more excited he got. Out of his excitement he began to dance. As he danced he posed riddles. The more riddles he posed the faster he danced. Faster and faster the dance went. Faster and faster the riddles came. Aggie heard only some of the riddles and couldn’t answer any of them. Only the King seemed to know the answers.

The dance came to an end and Aggie was instructed to give the King her riddle. She thought and thought and thought. Some riddles came but the King answered them easily. Aggie did not know that the King was all to put riddles into her head that he himself had made up and only he had the answer too. This made him seem very clever and he loved the idea the people thought him the cleverest Fairy King they had ever had.

After a time the King stopped putting riddles in Aggie`s head. He got bored. He longed for some new riddle. It had been so long since anyone mortal or immortal had come up with a riddle worth answering. The King hoped that this child could be the one to introduce the new into the kingdom beyond time that had grown a bit ordinary. He wanted to be able to send this child home. After all if she stayed her feet would only get in the way of the dance. He looked at her sitting in the corner and she looked sad. He didn’t know this feeling himself. He knew however that in the mortal world of time sadness was something that humans seemed to know only to well.

So he waited and Aggie waited. As she waited she thought of home and her Mum and Dad who would now be wondering where she had got to. The situation seemed hopeless and she felt so very tired. Before she fell asleep Aggie said a little prayer. “Please God give me a riddle that will set me free from this place of nowhere.” Aggie slept and dreamed.

When she awoke the King asked, “Well, do you have it?” Do you have the riddle that will allow you to go home?” Do you have a riddle that I can’t answer? The King of the Fairies waited. Everyone in the fairy kingdom waited. There was absolute silence. One could have heard a fairy pin drop.

Aggie too waited. You could see her thinking. The King knew the way humans thought. He was sure that she had no such riddle. Part of him was disappointed because he longed for a riddle that he did not know the answer too. He longed for a riddle that would put his full brain to the test. He did not think such a riddle was possible. He felt certain a new powerful riddle would not emerge from the mouth of this half brained human child.

Then Aggie replied, “Yes I have a riddle.”

All around the fairy kingdom there was heard a big sigh. Maybe, the fairies thought that here was a moral who could outwit their King. Of course this situation had repeated itself time and time again with the same results. When the riddle came the King knew the answer almost immediately. Always the possibility of the new was already known. Always the possibility of the celebration of the new ended in disappointment.

Aggie continued, “I have a riddle that you will not answer.” In her dream Aggie had seen various images that seemed to fit together. When she awoke from her sleep she knew that she had found a riddle that the King would not answer.

Now there was great excitement. No one had ever made such a statement before posing a riddle. It was not even in the great book of riddles. This proved how rare a statement it was. Even the King was slightly aghast.

“Before I ask you to answer this riddle I have to have your promise on one thing,” said Aggie. “This is that you have two hours to answer this riddle and if by that time you have failed you let me go home immediately.” Well this was too much. In the great book of riddles no rules where ever laid down about how long it should take to answer a riddle. In the world of fairy there was much muttering and disapproval. This was too much. One did not lay down rules about riddles. They all looked at the King to see what he would do.

The King was now sure that this child had fairy blood in her veins. She had already introduced two new things into the fairy world and she hadn’t even begun to ask the riddle. He was beside himself with excitement. He could feel the possibility of a real celebration of the new. He thought he must contain his excitement because he might give her anything she asked for.

He stood there for a long while not thinking. This was what he did when he knew that there was a real possibility of the new entering the realm of the fairy. This was not something to be rushed but a moment to be savoured. And so he waited and waited some more. He knew that the longer he waited the more powerful could be the experience of the new when and if it entered the world of the timeless.

I proclaim in the name of the world of Fairy that a riddle be asked. If it is not answered within the moral time known as two hours then the child of time will be released to go home.” Further if the riddle is not answered within this moral time of two hours that there will be one outcome. This will be a festival of dance. Only there will be a special guest and this will be called the celebration of the New.

All around the fairy circle everyone cheered. This was the proclamation that everyone had waited for. It seemed an eternity since the special celebration of the new had taken place within the world of fairy. Now all the fairies looked toward the human child who had raised their hopes for the new beyond their wildest imagination.

Silence fell as Aggie spoke her riddle.

“What is the shortest and longest
journey that only the blind who
can see must go on?”

She repeated the riddle two times more. As required under the rules of the Great Book of Riddles she had to give two clues. The first clue was that the last word contained the letters ‘a’ and ‘t.’ The second clue was that the third word of he answer contained the letter ‘o.’ Then the sand timer that would mark the two hours duration in the world of time was turned over. The King gathered with his wisest advisors in the Kingdom of Fairy to attempt to solve the riddle posited by the half brained child.

They mused on the first line. The King had the answer to this line before Aggie had even finished repeating the riddle for the second time. Part of him felt clever. More of him felt disappointed. This riddle was not proving to be at all difficult.

It was obvious to the King of the Fairies that the shortest and longest journey was the journey between the world of time and the world of the timeless. Every fairy knew this. It was elementary and taught in kinder garden fairy school. Accept that in the world of the half brained they had forgotten that such a journey ever existed.

He and the council of the wise got stuck on the line “only the blind who can see.” This was a great line and offered a great challenge. Maybe she meant the half blind but that was not how she had posed the riddle. They great book of riddles was very precise in this respect. Once the riddle was spoken for the first time no world could ever be changed. This could not even be altered by a Kings proclamation.

At five minutes to the end of two hours the King and the wisest of his fairy council were no nearer the solution to the riddle. Under the rules of the great book of riddles anyone who could add to the understanding of the riddle could then offer a solution. The King then asked the assembled throng. “Is there anyone who understands the meaning of the line ‘only the blind who can see?’ No one moved. Then three minutes before time a voice from the crowd murmured, “I think I know.” The room was still as the one called Two Left Feet who was a changeling moved nearer to the King and his council of the wise.

The King felt embarrassed. No one of the fairy world came forward to offer a solution to the riddle. Only the child who had been taken as a baby and refused to be a fairy now came forward. He came near and whispered the answer to the King. The King said nothing. The answer was examined and fitted with all the clues. It was one half minute less of two hours when the King announced, “We have our answer to the riddle.”

Maggie’s heart sank. She was sure her dream had conjured up a riddle that no fairy could solve. Still it seemed that they had and managed to fit the answer to all the clues that she had given. She wondered if she had been over generous with such clues.

It was with great pride and ever-greater disappointment that the King of the fairies announced the answer to the riddle. Speaking in his most ceremonial voice as only a King can he repeated the riddle and the clues given with it as required by the great book of riddles. He said, “We, the King and the Council of the Wise announce that the journey that is the shortest, longest and most arduous journey that only the blind who can see must make is.” Then the King halted for effect. Everyone waited and then the final answer came. “The journey of the Bat.”

There was silence. Soon the silence was filled with whispers and then discussion. A fairy who was most respected by his peers was reluctantly pushed out of the crowd. He stood looking at the King and trembled. “Excuse me your most worshipful majesty, enquired the trembling one, “but what is a bat.”

The King could not answer. He did not know what a bat was either but did not want to look ignorant. No one could remember having ever heard the word bat. The word did not exist in the fairy dictionary. Thus under the rules of the Great Book of Riddles it could not be allowed. Two Left Feet was called to explain what a bat was but no one believed him.

Therefore the King was forced to nullify the result. As a consequence the riddle had not been answered. Aggie was then asked if this was the correct answer to the riddle. “No it is not,” she replied. “The correct answer is ‘Journey to the Heart.’

You see the journey to the heart is the shortest and longest journey you will ever take. If you are blinded by reason alone you will not be able to see through the heart. You will not be wise. This is the journey you must take if you are to know what it truly means to be happy.

“Sometimes,” thought the King, “the wisest words come from the youngest hearts.” He looked around at the assembled crowd of little people. He could see that they knew that this half brained child was not so half brained at all. He could see that they knew and felt what he felt. This riddle was new but it held teachings that were ancient. It held the teachings of the beautiful people called the Tuatha De Danaan.

All those gathered around the human child where more than happy with her riddle. The answer she gave satisfied them. The new had arrived in the world of fairy. So there was the celebration that they had all longed and waited for and the dancing began. The King took Aggie and began to dance with her. Faster and faster they danced until one could not tell if there was one person or two. Then as the dancing came to its peak the King and Aggie disappeared.

Out on a river bank the King of the fairies laid the human child down in sleep. He kissed her forehead in order that she forgets and turned back time to the second before she first fell through the threshold place into the world of fairy. Then he gave her the gift he had promised.

Aggie awoke and wondered if she had been dreaming. Such a wonderful dream. She sat up and found that placed around her neck were two red shoes. These were dancing shoes. When you put them on you feet even if you did not move you felt that inside you were dancing.

Aggie made her way home. On entering the living room Aggie`s mother asked, “Where have you been for so long?” Aggie replied, “Oh nowhere and everywhere.” Her mother looked at this five-year-old child and said nothing but shook her head. “Sometimes,” thought Aggie McPartland`s mother, “my child talks in riddles.”

© Tony Cuckson 2006

Tony Cuckson who runs these groups is a storyteller, writer, workshop leader and Anam cara (Soul Friend) .