ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents results of a study driven by sheer intellectual curiosity. It is a compact presentation of a cumbersome study that lasted for almost a quarter of a century. The true folk riddle of oral traditions that have been rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth in the last hundred years is one of the most ancient threads of culture. It is enlightening to observe how the most basic and primal in human nature is intertwined with or perhaps inseparable from human culture in its sublime endeavors. One of the smallest genres of verbal culture is usually under a dozen of words; it is an intensely articulated utterance. The condition of riddle studies today is paradoxical. Curiously enough, students of the riddle are concerned with the difficulty of its definition but not with their understanding of it.
