Archive of Riddles

Elanor - Feb 13, 2006 10:39 am (#2723 of 2941)

Congratulations Nick! It was indeed the Common Welsh Green! 50 points for your house!
Mare, you were very close to the answer!

Here are some explanations about the clues:

"I'm here,
But you will hardly see me."
FB says about the Common Welsh Green that it "blends well with the lush grass of its homeland though it nests in the higher mountains" and that it prefers "to prey on sheep and [is] actively avoiding humans unless provoked."

"Born from the earth,"
That one was because of the "mountains" where is nests and because its eggs are "an earthy brown" (ok, I should be ashamed of that bad pun here, I'll iron my hands for that one! )

"I keep its fire burning."
Of course because of its fire-breathing abilities.

"A warm place to meet some friends
Though, may I be, in the end..."
This clue was what gave me the idea of the Riddle at first: I always wondered if the "Green Dragon" inn of the LotR was named after a Common Welsh Green... It is the place where the hobbits like to gather and, on their journey, the 4 hobbits will remember it as a nice place where they'd like to go again. It is where we also see them gather together (at least in the movie) in the end.

Your turn Nick!

Nicholas Schouten - Feb 15, 2006 9:01 am (#2740 of 2941)

Yes Marè: it's the Black Family Tapestry:

Black all over in ancient times -- at the start it was just the Black family on the Tapestry (whether in Latin, French or English);

Now I count my years by aged lines. -- the lines are both the marriage lines and the descendant lines;

Showing what was fated, –- looking backwards at history

Yet now made holy through hatred. -- actually hole-y as in holes blasted into the tapestry

Like felons of old
Many left swinging cold -- many felons of old were hanged and so the hangman's knot was used, emphasis on "knots";

I am hung with ties that bind; -- a double reference: tieing the marriage knots and hung with ties that bind the tapestry to the wall;

And remain as guardian for the righteous kind. -- Tousjours Pur

Congratulations Marè, and good guessing on everyone else's part.

- Nick

Marè - Feb 27, 2006 6:51 pm (#2930 of 2941)

Elanor! you are back! And you solved the Riddle (Although many other people came very close as well). Sorry if it was a bit confusing, it was my first homemade riddle...

So, explanation:

The opal necklace:

Hidden in a shady place; Burgin and Borkes is described as shady.
Magnificent as we may be; The opal necklace is described as magnificent.
Nineteen fallen, one escaped; As said, the necklace killed 19 Muggles, but Katie escaped.
Our goal we never reached; The necklace didn't kill Dumbledore, which was Draco's intention.

The bottle with blood with the opal stopper:

Hidden in a dusty place; The cabinet is described as dusty.
Between the hated and the loved; All the stuff that Sirius hates so much is loved dearly by Kreacher.
Serving what is old and dark; The ancient and most noble house of black.
By keeping pure their blood; The opal stopper on the bottle keeps out dust and bacteria, thereby keeping the blood inside literally clean.

The opals that Madam Maxime wears:

Open in the bright blue sky; Madam Maxime and her students arrive in a powder blue carriage flying through the sky.

The high and mighty we adorn; Madam Maxime is quite high, and as headmistress of Beauxbatons most likely a very powerful witch too. She is always described as wearing several opals on her neck and fingers.

Beautiful yet terrible all of us can be; this sentence refers to the opals as well as Madam Maxime, for the opals goes that most of them encountered in the books predict nothing good, and Madam Maxime's terrible side refers to her giant parentage. Although Grawp proofs that they can be quite gentle, we know that giants have a rather brutal side as well.

Treachery or trust, do you know what we may be?; Tricky sentence, refers to an old theory: two out of three cases in which we come across opals in the books they seem to have something to do with the darker side of magic, what does that say about Madam Maxime? Can we trust her? Or any opal item we may come across in the future for that matter?

Anyway you didn't really need the last sentence, the rest of the Riddle should have already pointed you to the right answer: Opals!

So? Next thread, new riddle? Elanor?