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.