3 · December 31st
My garment is of silver, shimmering-gray,
Spun with garnets bright-red.
I mislead the foolish, and trap those of quiet resolve.
Why they love me — lured from mind,
With naked nerves — is a riddle-relic.
I resist all who would wrestle with me;
Old and young alike I throw to the turf.
If they would still praise my great power,
In honor they lift aloft the precious treasure.
But in the dregs of habit they will find destruction.
What am I?
Red wine in a silver cup.
The holy blessed being of the brain.
Thanks for playing, Rachael, and bringing your NIA expertise on “brain” to the riddle. However, the answer to this riddle affects the brain.
Sounds like a decorated flagon of strong drink.
The flagon with the dragon?
Or it could be the chalice with the palace, Shirley!
Or the vessel with the pestle? But Shirley I jest(er).
Good one, Shirley.
Claret wine
Apparently, my first attempt got lost in cyberspace. Here’s what I said: Red wine in a silver cup.
Or, like David said, red wine in a jewel-encrusted silver cup.
Red wine in a silver goblet…
Another red, could be claret, wine in a silver dragon flagon/goblet.
I go with this one! Claret in a pewter bejewelled goblet.
Beny
It’s good you are all playing with this idea. It works. Any other thoughts?
It’s clear that people are looking forward to the new riddle, and it’s very gratifying to me.
Or the vessel with the pestle……but Shirley I jest(ter).
A glass of red wine being sipped at a royally festooned feasting table during Christmas Tide — most likely on the Eve of the New Year.
It’s on the eve of the New Year we are reading this. Thank you, Victoria, for the festive feast where we find the silver/pewter bejeweled dragon/flagon/goblet with red claret or champagne (in Jim’s).
I was playing with ashes and red coals. Then the rest could speak to the use and addiction to tobacco.
So far you are the only one who has played with the rest of the riddle beyond the cup. Addiction is exactly what that part is about. Thanks, Ian.
Ah, but wine can be addictive (or so I’ve heard 😜) and has dregs!
Yes. The comment to Ian was misleading. Thanks for making that clear, Shirley.
Again, I feel like a fool for thinking the answer must be Champagne although I can’t make sense of the bright red garnets. In fact, I’m not sure I know what a garnet exsctly is…a plant? a stone? Anyway, that’s my guess today. Thanks Chuck; this riddling is fun. jim
Look on this page, if you don’t mind,
a picture of garnets you will find.
Perhaps the fool or court jester – I think of them as one and the same.
Now at the festive feast a character – the Jester Fool – lifts the goblet and says to all “Happy New Year”.
I go with all the red wine/claret type drinks in a goblet/decorated type vessel responses.
I will add on a personal note that sometimes my “library” turns to boxes of books in my garage. Now winnowed down to maybe three in total. What remains? What I have not read for ages? HA! It is “The Hobbit!” Luckily for me I was reading the chapter on riddles between Gollum and Bilbo Baggins exchanged down in the caves. Thus a little preparation for your riddle fun.
In another context I use most of the Hobbit riddles because I love them also. As you suggest, people who have read Tolkein have an understanding of riddling.
I can’t hold my tongue any longer. From the beginning I have suspected the answer is coffee. Especially if you look at newly harvested coffee beans which are red. On a personal basis I have to say it is my all-consuming addiction, coffee.
Coffee fits the riddle if you stretch here and there a little.However, I researched to be sure tea and coffee did not exist in Anglo-Saxon Britain so it wouldn’t be the traditional answer. Interestingly I found: “Wine was not an early, traditional drink of the Anglo-Saxons. From early, pagan times their high-status, strong alcoholic drinks were beor and medu (mead). These were the drinks of the warriors in the Hall and thus we have the terms beorsele (Beer Hall) and meduhealle (Mead Hall). Neither of those would be red so thanks to Jane, now we have a little mystery.