Chapter III

The Ballads of Riddle and Repartee do not amount to very many in our tongue. But they contain riddles which may be found in one form or another in nearly every folklore on the earth. Even Samson had a riddle. Always popular, they seem to have been especial favourites in early Oriental literature, in the mediæval Latin races, and, in slightly more modern times, amongst the Teutonic and Scandinavian peoples. Perhaps _King John and the Abbot_ is the best English specimen, for it is to-day as pleasing to an audience as it can ever have been. But _Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight_, better known as _May Colvin_, is the most startling of any, in its myriad ramifications and supposed origin.