ABSTRACT
The German term Halslosungsratsel ‘neck-solving riddle’ was in use at the end of the nineteenth century. There are two elements in a neck riddle, separable in practice as well as in theory: the frame tale and the riddle. A legal setting, in which a prisoner is to be freed by the judge or the hangman if he sets a riddle which the latter cannot answer, is typical, and occasionally other circumstances appear. The riddle set into this frame is usually one based on unusual circumstances known only to the prisoner: it is not to be expected that any other character could solve it. In this it is the opposite of a catechism question, which tests the traditional knowledge of the individual to whom it is addressed. The pair, legal frame and riddle based on unusual circumstances, were assigned type number AT 927.
