Mall

The droodle boom in Estonia began in the 1960s and reached its peak in the 1980s. Names such as Arabian riddle (Koeru) and Armenian riddle (Viru-Nigula, Paide, Tartu) are occasional translations of the popular name for the mock riddles that have been considered borrowings. When questioning the pupils of country schools that are situated far from cities and large settlements, it becomes clear that not all children know such things nowadays, although they know riddles where verbal explanation is accompanied by an illustrative picture. Although the age of the circle of active users is between 5 and 25 years, it is primarily a teenage hobby. Both the interest in solving droodles and the droodles themselves spread in wafts, like infectious diseases.

In comparison with ordinary riddles, in droodles the question is represented by a picture. The question "What is that?" can be added to the picture in written or oral form or altogether omitted. The answer can also be given in written form, especially when the droodles are solved during classes by means of correspondence. In an ordinary riddle the thing to be guessed is presented in the form of a narrative or interrogative sentence. The answer is usually lapidary. The characteristic of droodles is, however, that the answer is presented as a sentence that formulates the fundamental features of a visual image. Phrasing is facilitated by the fact that a droodle is likely to depict movement, action, a momentary situation. If the stress is on a situation, a state, the predicate can be supplied mentally. The answer often includes an epithet, which is an important means of the imagery of droodles (e.g. the answers A fat man behind a tree; Two black cats in a dark room).

Traditionally, the preferred object of droodles is a living being: a human being, animal, bird, insect. The female side is represented by more names (woman, lady, aunt, maiden, girl, old hag, granny, mummy, mother-in-law, sister, etc.) than the male side (man, boy, Juku). Representatives of nations or groups of population are still enjoying great popularity, especially Mexicans, cowboys, not so often Negroes, Chinese, Red Indians, occasionally an African, Turk, Georgian, Kirghiz, Jew, or Gypsy. They are, from the point of view of Estonian users, exotic or remote nations that are defined by a characteristic attribute: a Mexican by a sombrero, an Amerindian by a feather (feathers) on his head, etc. On the picture, the attribute stands for the imagined human being. People represented by their profession, occupation, field of activities (hunter, fisherman, soldier, militiaman, card-players, Santa Claus, holy man, tight-rope walker, drunkard, ballerina, model, grave-digger) are also defined by a characteristic detail: a hunter by a gun barrel, a militiaman by his shoulder straps, card-players stooping under the table by their cards (1, 2). One can also come across the devil, a witch or children's fancy creatures such as bugaboo, duncey, boozle.

Among animals, there are relatively many exotic ones: elephant, giraffe, camel or dromedary, crocodile, zebra, rhinoceros, donkey, monkey, polar bear; more occasionally occur koala, panda, moon bear, ostrich, peacock, shark, boa-constrictor, turtle, dinosaur. Especially numerous are the recordings of the images Four elephants sniffing at an orange and A giraffe behind a window (3, 4). From ordinary representatives of the fauna, the circle of interest of the droodles includes dog, cat, rooster, hen, goat, cow, horse, pig, piglet, bear, wolf, fox, rabbit, squirrel, hedgehog, rat, mouse, bat, bird (birds), stork, crow, wasp, bee, ant, bedbug, butterfly, fly, gnat, snail. The most widespread droodle of this group is A bear climbing a tree (5).

When conveying droodles through drawings, the spatial dimension is not taken into account - the picture is two-dimensional. It seems to be a deliberate aim rather than a simplification resulting from inadequacy of young riddle solvers who are not yet quite skilled in depicting space. Perspective has been used only occasionally (6). Very characteristic is an unusual angle of viewing, view from the top being preferred. In the cowboy series, this principle runs through all the pictures (e.g. the image A cowboy with a sombrero (7), the parallel interpretations to the same picture being A fat man; A bottle; Fried egg). View from the side or from below occurs in considerably fewer cases (8, 9), although there should be enough opportunities to apply it.

Pars pro toto is a well-known trick. Using this, it is easy to convey the objects in drawing. A part of the object is drawn instead of the whole, the rest is not visible, but can be supplied mentally (1, 5). An 8-year-old girl told the person who showed her the picture A rabbit behind a stone, "My father once told me when I could not draw a rabbit: "Draw it behind a stone!" It is from there that I know the riddle." (RKM II 431, 298 (3) < Kursi, Puurmanni Secondary School - M. Hiiemäe (1989).) The greater part of situations of hiding presented for guessing are created so that the object to be guessed is behind something - in most cases behind a window, tree, stone, fence (4, 1), occasionally behind a wall, corner of a house, forest, mountain, cloud, etc.

The graphical image can be presented in a frame. Only a part of the whole can be seen, the rest is separated by the frame - so, this method can be readily used in creating droodles: only the tail of a horse (rooster, fox, mouse, dog, hare, etc.), the beak of a bird, the feet of a stork, etc., fit inside the contours, i.e within the frame of the picture. Moreover, what is seen on the picture can be of very little significance: for example, a cord, on the other end of which there is traditionally said to be a dog, a goat or a cow (11). This method reminds one of the anecdote of a famous artist's pictures titled Fog in London (in the frame there is a uniform grey surface) or A cow on the pasture (black surface - the cow ate the grass and went away). Manipulation with frames gives one good opportunities to exercise one's fancy and enables deliberate polysemy of answers. A white quadrangle is associated with an idea of white colour, light and emptiness, giving such answers as Clear skies; A pillow; A dinner table, A cow has eaten the grass, Portrait of a mouse; The cat has eaten the mouse; A human being in his exterior splendour; All I know about physics. The explanations for a black- surfaced rectangle are: A black cat; Two black cats in a dark room; Two Negroes eating black currants in a dark room; Four Negroes looking for a black cat in a dark room; A Negro in the Black Sea; Night; Fog; A hedgehog in the fog; A car in the fog; Red Indians in the fog; "Volga" speeding through the night; A smoky room; Hen dung; etc. Placing dots into the frame, one gets the following variants.

One dot: A fly on the window; A wasp on the window; A flea on a bed-sheet; A speck of dust in the eye (of the Holy Ghost); A Negro swimming in the sea.

Three dots: A tomcat making eyes at a pussy-cat; A polar bear coming out of its lair (12).

If there are more dots, the answers can be: Volleyball court; Gingerbread on a baking-sheet; Bedbugs on a sheet; A swarm of gnats; Falling leaves; Snowfall; It is raining cats and dogs behind the window.

In droodles, the same functions are taken over by window frames. For example, a 6th-form pupil presents the droodle A giraffe behind the window, followed by pictures, drawn in the same way (pars pro toto) and with a similar specification of place behind the window, of a toy catapult, a snake's tail, pear, spruce, sea, electric wires, mushroom, stone arrow, mug, candle, elephant's ear, cactuses, horse's tail, lance, wooden spear, helmet, dog's ear, skis, axe, hare traces, horse's mane, pig's snout, bird's feet, cow's tail, dog, plaits, switch, elk's antlers, gnat, key, snail (RKM, KP 30, 688/90 (1-30) < Tartu-Maarja, Kõrveküla Basic School - M. Klaas (1992)).

Using geometrical figures (square, rectangle, triangle, circle, ellipsis, straight line, section) is a fairly productive method. Here, one can observe two points of departure in the creation of droodles: (1) the droodle (the object to be guessed) becomes a picture; (2) the picture becomes a droodle. The latter consists in seeking a meaning to ornaments and combinations of images, in order to present them for guessing (3, 8, 13, 22). One can take as an example the explanations given by 5th-form pupils to a circle placed in the middle of a square: A ball of yarn; A stone; A fireball; A ball; A head; A hole; A pea; The flag of Japan (RKM KP 3, 388 (7a-8e) < Kuusalu, Loksa Secondary School - L. Malva (1992)). To a black circle in the middle of a white square, another pupil of the same form gives the following explanations: The flag of Japan; A circle; A hole; A ball; A water melon; A wheel (14) (RKM, KP 3, 266, (25a) < Kuusalu, Loksa Secondary School - H. Laasi (1992)).

In order to make the guessing more difficult, the object to be guessed may be depicted in an unusual, extraordinary or even impossible situation, similarly with the spoof riddle What is that - hanging in the ceiling, green and squeaking? (Cf. its commentary: A herring is painted green and hung to the ceiling. The squeaking has been added, in order to make the riddle more difficult. (RKM II 49, 111 (101) < Urvaste - M. Reisma (1955).) This is the principle of the droodles A rabbit sitting in a hat (15) and Children turning somersaults behind a fence. Saint-Exupèry's illustration to his The Little Prince - a picture, drawn from the point of view of a six-year-old child, of a boa-constrictor digesting an elephant - is also circulating as a droodle. In Estonia, it is known under the explanations An elephant in a boa-constrictor's stomach, or A boa who has swallowed an elephant, or A snake has eaten an elephant (16). In case of the images that are built on impossibility or absurd, one can notice an aspiration to achieve a comical effect (17, 18), the wish to pull another person's leg (19), as is the case with absurd jokes or with the so-called elephant riddles.


1. A hunter with a gun walking behind a fence	2. Card-players stooping under the table, looking for lost cards

3. Four elephants sniffing at an orange	4. A giraffe behind a window

5. A bear climbing a tree	6. Chess-board for beginners

7. A cowboy with a sombrero	8. Side-view of a Christmas card

9. A potbelly from below	10. A rabbit behind a stone

11. A man walking a goat on a cord	12. A polar bear coming out of its lair

13. A handbag	14. The flag of Japan

15. A rabbit sitting in a hat	16. A boa who has swallowed an elephant

17. An accordion washed and ironed	18. A public toilet

19. Number 9 behind a window	20. Negroes kissing

21. A mitten	22. A Georgian girl swinging her plaits

23. A cloth-line with cloth-pegs	24. Love is over

25. Mother-in-law licking ice-cream	26. Two persons nose by nose

27. Nikita Khrushchev's bald head behind the Kremlin walls	28. Two earthworms sniffing at a withered cucumber

29. Four dogs sniffing at a bone	30. A bear hugging a giraffe

Disproportion is not a frequent method of making the droodles more difficult. The majority of cases consist in the magnification of the depicted characteristic detail in relation to the frames, reduction occurs seldom (21, 22). There are more droodles based on misleading similarity than those based on disproportion (22, 23). The principles of a picture puzzle are often applied in the drawings of 9-10-year-old children, and ecpecially, when improvising new droodles. The commonly used symbols start to be employed in a slightly older age. The choice is small, although there should be enough opportunities to use them (24, 25). The homonymy of words has also found little use in the droodles (26). Sex is alien to the droodles: the traditional stylized symbols of genitals are used sparingly. In some cases, the image of a known droodle is given a new meaning - it represents functionally a political anecdote (2, with the explanation [Prime Minister] Vähi's administration looking for papers under the table (RKM, kp 14, 253 (10) < Haapsalu Sanatorium Boarding School < Tõstamaa - A. Nõmmik (1992)). The subject of a bald-headed statesman has been represented with more than one variant (27).

In general, in the creation of new droodles the structural elements of both the drawing and the answer have been successfully used. The known has been replaced, presented in a new context, contaminated. Merging the images, one can produce new, surprising solutions, for example, A giraffe behind the window and A bear climbing a tree producing A bear hugging a giraffe (4, 5, 30). The droodle Four elephants sniffing at an orange that has lost its freshness, has originated new ones such as Four dogs sniffing at a bone or Two earthworms sniffing at a withered cucumber. On the side of the answers, their relatedness is self-evident, in the pictures it is not traceable (3, 28, 29).

Thus, we can perceive traditional principles in creating droodles, that are analogous with any other folklore genre. Since freshness is a pre-requisite condition in the presentation of droodles, as it is with anecdotes, the aspirations to renovate, quick spread and quick obsolescence are to be expected. This applies also to the principles of creating them - when these are too characteristic of the genre and when different variants and their combinations have been exhausted, it can prove dangerous to the topicality of the genre.

Thirty years have passed since the first droodles of the beginning of the boom were documented in the Estonian Folklore Archives. By the 1991-1992 actions of collecting school traditions, their topicality had begun to fade. As the inquiries among the Russian schoolchildren of Estonia show, such droodles are not very popular among them. It is not quite clear how and by which ways the riddles of the droodle type reached us from the Anglo-American culture area. Printed press and media might be considered a more important means of mediation than the actual process of solving riddles across the former barriers of frontier and language. The riddles conveyed by gestures and facial expressions (for example, the one with the answer A pair of Chinese sneakers for me, please) became popular. The old tradition of rebuses re-awakened. The word reebus (rebus) is not used among Estonians, but in the Russian language it is used and among the pupils of Russian schools, the riddles of this type also enjoy a greater popularity (cf. Latin rebus < res `thing'; in the riddles of that type the answer is contained in the names of the things depicted; in order to facilitate the solution of rebuses, the places are marked on the picture where there is a surplus or a missing letter). Sometimes even the exercises that so far have been presented orally are accompanied or preceded by a visualized presentation.

31. A railway is built around the graveyard. How can an old lady get into the graveyard? Throws herself under the train.

Since 1953, several publications have appeared in the US in a row by Roger Price, the encourager and advocate of droodles, where he, among other things, introduces the knack of creating such riddles. The term also comes from Price, whereby the American slang word `doodle' gets an additional letter, in order to emphasize its closeness to the word `riddle'. The same word is known among the Germans (Drudel), and, to some extent, among the Swedes (drodlar), etc., but Estonians have not borrowed it. Observing the folklore of Swedish schoolchildren, Bengt af Klintberg has thought it necessary to draw a border between individual and traditional, in other words, single and generally known droodles. The preferred methods have been stylization, unusual angle of viewing, depiction of a part instead of the whole (Klintberg 1980:190). It is characteristic of the Germans to depict things indirectly, in an unusual perspective, in a sketched way (Bausinger 1968:125-126). In a Finnish short guide to droodle-solving there is a suggestion to try to find the right angle, so that a whole would be constituted from the parts, a surprising perspective would appear, an absurd solution would manifest itself, because a seemingly simple drawing tries to confuse the solver (Lipponen 1989:166-167). As it appears, the same features can be met in the Estonian tradition that developed without the directing influence of local publications or mass distribution. Even the single droodles should be taken as improvisations on a traditional basis, because traditional methods have been used. By way of general estimation, one might say about the ten thousand and odd variants that have come to the Archives by 1993 that in the creation of the droodles people have observed the methods of creation more than they have sticked to typical images, which has resulted in an original and rich folklore material.

Klintberg, Bengt af 1980 "Mexicans and Giraffes: Droodles among Swedish School Children". In Folklore on two Continents. Essays in honour of Linda Dégh. Bloomington.

Lipponen, Ulla 1989 Kilon poliisi ja muita koululaisjuttuja. 8th printing. Helsinki.

The Principles of Creating Droodles in Estonia

References