((This text, authored by an unknown scribe in Dale during the early Fourth Age, concerns a strange Dalish custom. For those unfamiliar with the tale of Old Farmer Jack and the Boggart, it is suggested that they first seek out the story in some form. The version set down here may serve as an adequate example, though any passing Dale-lander will almost certainly be willing to explain and perhaps even demonstrate the custom, if asked.))
The riddle game is one of the oldest, most venerated and widespread traditions of Middle-earth’s diverse and divided peoples. The practice of ‘riddling’ is beloved by folk in lands far and wide, and is treated as being a matter of utmost gravity by some who count themselves learned.
However, in the Dale-lands and other lesser kingdoms nearby (and to our knowledge, only in these lands), exists a peculiar variant of the riddle game. This version, commonly known as “Riddling Farmer Jack”, “Farmer Jack and the Boggart”, or “A Battle of Wits with Farmer Jack“, is not at all concerned with matching wits, or with intricate and puzzling wordplay, as a riddle-game should be. Indeed, it is barely a game in that sense at all, occupying a strange middle ground between game, story, and improvisatory stage-play. No, “Riddling Farmer Jack” is, at its heart, primarily a demonstration of clever and subversively poor verse-making, and a display of verbal wit and swift acting skills to boot. Or, in short, it is a comical, usually improvised, farce.
“Riddling Farmer Jack” belongs to the beloved “Old Farmer Jack” tradition of tales, so often told in northern lands. As is typical in tales concerning Farmer Jack, the farmer is met with a strange, distressing occurrence. The farmer displays no great wit or strength or even skill in resolving the situation, but luckily, his foe is equally incompetent, or fortune is on his side, or (as in “Old Farmer Jack and the Wishes Three”), the second party actively works against Jack’s stupidity so as to ensure that all turns out well for him.*
As to “Riddling Farmer Jack”, the Authorities have suggested two possible origins for this story. Some say that it was likely born of a children’s game, in which youths clumsily imitated the overheard and ill-understood riddle games of their elders. Others think rather that the practice is born of an especially memorable riddle game gone comically awry, perhaps after a long evening of libatious revelry. In truth, both may well be true in some measure, and certainly it is now a popular sport among youths, and for grown folk engaged in feast and jest. In short, whatever its origin may be, “Old Farmer Jack and the Boggart” has been, for years uncounted, a much-loved game for Dalish folk.
Traditionally, the game is acted out between two people, one playing “Jack” and the other taking the part of the “boggart”. The audience cheers on Jack and jeers the boggart, with groans of frustration and amused anger punctuating each riddle as Jack and the boggart demonstrate ever greater stupidity. Alternatively, the group may be divided into “Jacks” and “boggarts”, with each riddle being told by a new person, and the game finishing once everyone has told a riddle.
As to the riddles themselves, there are few fixed ‘rules’. However, the following are encouraged:
- Badly composed rhyming schemes and/or metre. It is widely agreed upon that the more obtuse, tortured, or bizarrely composed the rhyming schemes are (especially on the part of the boggart), the better. Rhyming a word with itself, or with something completely incongruous, or saying two words which are spelt similarly yet pronounced differently, are common and beloved techniques.** Irregular metrical structures, ill-chosen words selected not for meaning but for the sake of producing a rhyme, and running words over lines are also typical. In short, any and every method of producing a badly-made riddle is encouraged - though counterintuitively, both cleverness and silliness are encouraged in equal measure.
- Making the riddle very easy, or completely obtuse. Alternatively, telling a well-known riddle, but omitting crucial information or missing the point of it. In any case, the riddle-verse should be flawed not just in technical construction, but also in meaning and conception.
- As mentioned above, audience participation is welcome and encouraged, often taking on an air not dissimilar to the beloved Hobbitish pantomime tradition.
Once the riddle is told, it is now the job of the ‘guesser’ to act their way through inventing an answer - an answer that, no matter how silly, will be answered with agreement from the teller (and typically with wails and cries of disbelief from the onlookers). Then the second person tells a riddle, following the same guidelines, and so the game goes on. Each new riddle, of course, should display some novel flaw, and while detractors of the game point toward the nonsensical and pointless nature of it, others contend that there is a rare skill in being able to compose novel and flagrant breaches of the rules of verse, riddling, and good sense.***
In any a case, eventually the improvised performance must come to a close. It is the job of the “boggart” to signal the beginning of the end of the game, invariably by telling a completely nonsensical “riddle” (the fewer recognisable words, the better), which the “farmer” answers correctly. Then, the farmer leads into the final act of the piece, where he tricks the boggart in some fashion and thus saves his life.
The manner of trickery varies greatly, and confident “farmers” may even search for new variations or possibilities. The classic method, though, is to tell a riddle that obviously refers to the boggart in some way (Eyes so red and hair so green, / Now he would gnaw on me so lean / ….), to which the boggart replies, “Ah, that’s me”, and the farmer, triumphant, says, “No, the answer is you”. Bewildered by the simple subtleties of the grammatical construction of pronouns, the boggart concedes defeat and leaves.
Other typical variations may include the farmer telling a riddle with an obvious answer, and then giving a different one to whatever the boggart offers, the farmer asking an innocuous question that the boggart gets wrong, the farmer tricking the boggart into leaving, or (in some nastier versions of the story) the farmer tricking the boggart into a lethal situation by falling into the fire or a cauldron of boiling water. More often than not, though, the boggart gets away, so as to riddle another day. In some versions, he goes and warns all his friends to beware this ‘wise and learned’ farmer. In others, it may be implied that this is not the first time the boggart has come to call, thus putting a humorously friendly and familiar bent upon the proceedings.
In short, “Riddling Farmer Jack” is a curious tradition, and Dalish folk will take delight in presenting straight-faced and serious performances of it to unsuspecting travellers, adding yet another layer to the absurd joke. As mentioned above, there are certain striking similarities between this game and that of the hobbit pantomime, given that both encourage audience participation and feature absurd humour. As such, it may be that the tradition of both is in fact rather ancient, springing from some common and long-forgotten source,**** but this suggestion is no more than an educated guess on our part.
We hope that this brief discourse may shed some light upon this strange Dalish game, and that it may prove of interest to any Dalish folk who wish to learn more about the origins of the game, or to any travellers who found themselves bewildered at the impenetrable custom. In any a case, we will diligently continue working toward a better understanding of “Riddling Farmer Jack,” and will be pleased to present any fresh developments as we uncover them. In the meanwhile, we wish you good riddling - but perhaps not too good!
* “The Wishes Three”, for example, is a humorous twist on the common depiction of fey beings as capricious and tricksy creatures. In this tale, the wish-giver does work hard to twist the wording of Jack’s wishes, but to prevent, rather than cause, any obvious calamity caused by the oblivious Jack’s poor phrasing, subverting the usual role of such enigmatic wish-givers.
** By way of example, rhyming words such as “though” and “tough”, or “see” and “sea”. It is also possible to mispronounce a word so as to change the meaning completely, in order to rhyme it (“wind”, for example, may be pronounced to rhyme with “mind”, but with the meaning of “gusts of air” rather than “twisting”). A frequently occurring penultimate line, “Tell me, riddle-guesser now,” offers many silly “rhyming” possibilities for the canny riddle-maker to exploit.
*** To the point where certain Dalish performers have gained great local renown for their double-act depictions of the pair, deftly incorporating audience suggestions and local jokes into their act.
**** Though it is rare for Hobbit-folk to visit the lands of Dale, and likewise for Dalish travellers to stay long in the Shire, it has been observed that hobbits take to the game of “Riddling Farmer Jack” more readily than other peoples. This may lend further credence to our speculation, but may well also be explained by the known propensity of hobbits both to riddle games, and to subversive humour. In any a case Hobbits, of all the peoples of Middle-earth, seem the most likely to adopt the custom.
