How a few riddles got together to tell you a secret message
There are 11 riddle cards below, each with the last letter of their solution. Solve them all, then take the first letter of each solution, arrange them in the right way, and you will unlock a secret message.
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A Small Glitch
Since this is a work in progress, I have no riddles that end in U and R, which were needed for the secret message. But I have added cards with them, so it's all good.
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Each card reproduces the details of a work of art, old and new. See the end of page for details.
99 RIDDLES
How many what? What's this all about actually?
I'm glad you asked! I'm an adult who likes riddles. There most be at least some other person like me out there, right? Right?
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Well, let's assume for a moment that you are that person. This means that, just like me, you are highly disappointed by the state riddles find themselves in nowadays: crammed as many as possible—quantity over quality—in substandard collections, either online or in cheaply printed books.
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This, my dear fellow riddle lover, is my humble attempt to make riddles engaging again, or at least give them some new, modern clothes. A bit more ambitiously, it is also an attempt to recreate the original mystery and appeal of these little charms.
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The first step towards this is a well curated collection, which is exactly what I'm doing. The result is a nice little booklet called 99 RIDDLES.
I have dug deep and long for the best riddles out there. Some of them are from readily available sources, which themselves, more or less knowingly, hold some of the most ancient riddles, dating back to the tradition of the Sphinx. These may be familiar to you. Others, however, have been dug out laboriously from old ethnographic books, and even poetry. Many in such cases were truly beautiful, but they were too arcane, too specific, or simply too poetic for the general purpose. An example is the following Filipino riddle: "I planted a pepper near a bed, I watered it with honour, it yielded a precious jewel" (a baby).
​ You're welcome to leaf through the booklet and enjoy it. Don't expect any easy answers, though. You'll only get that the hard way, by solving the 100th out of the 99 riddles.
The Hundredth Riddle
A hundredth riddle out of the ninety-nine provides the answers to all others. After you play the game, or simply brose the booklet, if there are riddles that proved too stubborn and evasive, return here and get the version with all the answers.
The password is of course, the answer to the hundredth riddle.
The Fine Print
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If you enjoy this project, please consider subscribing through the form below. Maybe one day we will plant a tree together.
List of artworks For the secret message: Imitator of David Teniers the Younger - Personification of Autumn Andrea Mantegna- Samson and Delilah François de Nomé - Fantastic Ruins with Saint Augustine and the Child Bernardino Lanino- The Madonna and Child with Saints Le Corbusier - Still Life Claude Monet - Impression, Sunrise Joachim Wtewael - The Judgement of Paris Guy Pène du Bois - Americans in Paris Georges Seurat - Bathers at Asnières For the tree riddles: Aert van der Neer - A River Landscape with a Village Utagawa Hiroshige - Men poling boats past a bank with willows Claude Monet - Norman Farm through the Trees