Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: djb6@ellis.uchicago.edu (Dennis Brennan)
Subject: Karl: A Riddle (the riddle of the Vedrian Northstone)
Message-ID: <1992May21.234059.666@midway.uchicago.edu>
Keywords: Riddle,Karl,turnip,basketball,alt.evil,procrastination,cobalt
Date: Thu, 21 May 1992 23:40:59 GMT

At the table where Karl sits, his companions sit with their backs to the
wall, apparently an instinctive protection.  Karl, sitting across from Thorr-
Kan and Rune, turns his seat around to face the rest of the patrons and begins
to speak:

"All this talk about riddles and puzzles reminds me of something that happened
about fifty winters ago up in Varande, the country where my wife lost her life.
The emperor of that land, Salsbourey IV, had no direct descendants to be his
heirs.  As per the custom of that country, he was then entitled to bequeath
all that he owned to whomever he wished.  In his case, that meant the
disposition of the entire empire of Varande, which stretched for nearly
a thousand miles from east to west.  Concerned for posterity, he desired for
his successor to be a wise man, clever and imaginative.  He therefore composed
this riddle, which was carved on the Vedrian Northstone, and announced that
anyone who correctly solved this riddle would be heir to the throne of Varande.
However, shortly after this decree he was assassinated by a spiteful nobleman,
thus plunging Varande into the Age of Despair in which it languishes yet.
But, according to legend, any who lay their hands on the Northstone and speak
the correct answer of the riddle will be crowned Emperor.  Here is the
riddle, as I remember it:

'I sit alone on a rock
Whilst I'm raising the wind,
But the storm once abated
I'm gentle and kind.
I've kings at my feet
Who await but my nod,
To kneel down in the deep,
On the ground that I've trod.
Tho' oft seen by the world,
I am known but to few;
The gentiles despise me,
I'm pork to the Jew.
I never have passed
But one night in the dark,
And that was with Noah
Alone in the Ark.
My weight is three pounds,
My length is a mile;
And when I'm discovered
You will say with a smile-
That my first and my last
Are the best of our isle.'"

Karl leans back, softly chuckling as the patrons scratch their heads
in thought...

ADMIN:  This riddle was actually composed by the Bishop of Salisbury and
a 15 pound prize was offered for its solution.




-- 
Dennis Brennan
djb6@midway.uchicago.edu