4 · January 2nd
I was a young girl, gray-haired lady,
And matchless warrior, all at one time.
I flew with birds, I swam in the sea;
Dove under waves, dead among fish;
I stood on the ground; my soul is alive.
What am I?
Twelve Days of Christmas : Riddle 4
4 · January 2nd
Sitting here by a nice fire,looking out at the brilliant sunshine on a scene that _might_ get above freezing today…does snow have a living soul?
(I can’t think what snow has to do with a lucky charm, though.)
K, Thanks for playing, and for the image of you by the fire, wondering if snow has a soul. It’s not the answer though.
Water, the eternal metamorph.
HINT: When in the ocean water is everywhere.
A seed. ???
Monica, good thinking; this guess could fit all the lines but we would have to accept that a seed is a woman old, young, and matchless warrior at the same time.
Rain.
Rain and snow are weather conditions and are not the answer.
The lucky charm bit and image lead me to seagulls. They were deemed a good luck charm for sailors out at sea. A seagull sighted meant land was not very far away and thus they brought hope and cheer.
But you folks are mischief oriented:) so seagulls may be too obvious!
Mischief? Yes. The bird picture is a misdirection.
The lucky charm is throwing me too. I want to say dove (as in Noah), but I fear parts of the clues don’t fit (I don’t think doves swim).
I also think of seagulls.
From Lara: sent by email
The Moon
Nice for the beginning of it, with Diana/Artemis as the warrior. However, the moon doesn’t “dive” or be “dead among fish” or “stand on the ground”.
Wind
Then answer has to fit all the lines… it’s a stretch to find the wind in the latter lines.
Another thought that comes to mind (partly due to my Anglo-Saxon background) is iceberg, but again it doesn’t fit all the clues and certainly isn’t seen as a lucky charm. It is seen as a warrior woman.. And it swims in the sea. Not much standing on the ground, though, and I’d expect destruction as a clue.
Here’s an Anglo-Saxon riddle for Iceberg:
I saw a wonder wandering the waves.
She was devastating, beautifully adorned,
(Gasp!) Water turned to bone.
Check out Exeter Book riddle 33. Beautiful!
We beheld the Exeter Cathedral library’s Exeter Book of Riddles two summers ago. It was a copy, though we were still white gloved from looking through an actual Folio edition of Shakespeare. The wonderful librarian put the Folio down open to Prospero’s speech about breaking his staff, drowning his book, and forgoing magic altogether for a human life.
A Big Hint: It’s a part of what Anglo-Saxons used to travel the sea.
A tree.
More specifically, oak tree.
Richard, that’s where I was headed too!
A coin
A whimsical almost answer… can’t stretch to “my soul is alive”… Thanks, Luke.
Was thinking a Valkyrie, but now I’m thinking a carved female figurehead on the bow of a ship?
Mary Karen – that’s it! Hurrah for you!
The oak tree answers are in the right direction… just needed to be shaped into the ship.
I knew they had animal/dragon heads. I didn’t know the Anglo Saxons had figures of women. You learn something every day,
I would say a sunbeam.
Sunbeam is the answer to another riddle: “What goes over the water, and through the water, and doesn’t get wet!” Please see Mary Karen’s answer – she figured it out!