Jeff G. writes: >Almost sounds like Tolkien. Thank you for the complement. Tolkien was drawing on a long riddle-game tradition (which I was also drawing on, of course), in Anglo-Saxon (and many other) cultures. >It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, >Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. >It lies behind stars and under hills, >And empty holes it fills. >It comes first and follows after, >Ends life, kills laughter. Darkness, of course. Or "the dark." The other (non-dragaeran) riddles , FWIW, that I came up with along with the Dragarean one are: Four came before me. Two commanded me. One was within me. What I killed for enslaved me. Whom I tried to kill stole it from me. Whom I tried to steal it from, I served, And in the end, I saved him. Who am I? I drank from a king. Yet kings have striven to drink from me? What am I? Hermes's silver snake, I speed but do not slither, Burrow but do not dig. What am I? Famed am I. Yet my final, fabled fate is filetting flour. All but the last have answers in the comments where they were first posted: http://www.livejournal.com/users/mnemex/ -- Joshua Kronengold (mneme@(io.com, labcats.org)) |\ _,,,--,,_ ,) --^-- "Get your mind right and you can make a stick /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;' /\\ your wand and the sky your hat and a puddle |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\ /-\\\ your magic..." -- Granny Weatherwax '---''(_/--' (_/-'