Cosmic Images and Metaphors in Mongolian Riddles
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In this presentation, illustrated with sides and diagrams, I spoke of cosmic imagery and metaphors in Mongolian riddles. Traditionally, the role of Mongolian riddles was not only to develop the verbal dexterity of interlocutors, not least children, but perhaps even more importantly, to transmit a vision of the surrounding world. This would seem likely to explain the abundance of intensely vivid images of the cosmos, the heavens (sky, Tenger), and the earth, not to mention the role of human beings, whose task it is to participate in maintaining a balance between these masculine and feminine poles. These themes, in the Mongolian riddle corpus, are encoded in visual metaphor and specific spatial tropes. I also spoke of the cosmic mirroring principle evident in these riddles, as well as the principal of reciprocity between Tenger and Gazar, sky and earth. |
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