riddle--can anyone answer this?

[gabbyhayes]

"I sit stern on the rock while I'm raising the wind,
But the storm once abated, I'm gentle and kind.
Kings sit at my feet who wait at my nod
To kneel in the dust on the ground I have trod.
I'm seen by the world and known by but a few.
The Gentile detests me, I'm pork to the Jew.
My weight is three pounds, my length is a mile,
And when once discovered, you'll say with a smile -
That the first and the last are the pride of the isle.

The answer is a word of one syllable.

[Koffing]

Yes.

[voguevixen]

gry?

[2sense]

Pasted from the Teeming Millions In-Jokes Page for the edification of newbies:

Gry -- "There are three words in the English language that end with the letters -gry. The first two are hungry and angry. What's the third?" Cecil actually did answer this, and if you ask it here, people will hate you forever and ever. [explained by Kyla Sedai]

Just a guess gabbyhayes, but is the answer a duck?

[gabbyhayes]

duck doesn't fulfill very many of the requirements.

there are only two words that end with "gry"--angry and hungry. There are additional words in the dictionary, like half-angry or gold-hungry but I doubt you would accept them. The "three words ending in gry" connundrum is famous and reappears in every generation like a virus. You could easily coin some words. Hungry and angry are adjectives formed from hunger and anger. All you need to do is pick a noun that ends in "ger" and by the same rule form an adjective from it. Something covered with fingers might be described as fingry. If a joke book is full of zingers, it might be described as zingry. A large choir is singry, snaps are gingry, an advanced case of tuberculosis in which the patient is coughing up pieces of lung, known colloquially as "lungers" would be lungry.

[voguevixen]

Gabby, don't make me come over there...

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

McGuffin?

[voguevixen]

lol, Mjollnir!

Was it the thing in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction?

[SPOOFE]

Spam.

[Skwerl]

Does someone at least know if this is a genuine riddle? I'd be more than a little bitter if I spent a week trying to figure it out and then someone posts "Oh yeah, I remember reading about this...It's some hoax a college kid came up with. There is no answer!"

[Chronos]

Well, the first four lines would fit Shakespeare's Prospero (lead character in The Tempest, but that falls apart with everything from "seen by the world" on. The Sun also fits parts of it, but not all. I think that the key clue is "My weight is three pounds, my length is a mile"... What's long and lightweight, folks?

[Achernar]

Cord? Stick? Time? Song? Wrap? Stretch? String? Death? Life? Steam? Breath? Storm? Cramp? Day? Year?

[samclem]

I found a link to a deja post last night, which indicated it goes back to the mid-1850's but without the last two lines? With out the last two lines someone postulated "raven".

Sorry to not inclue links as I was tired/drunk when I found it.

[samclem]

Sorry. I should have made clear the supposed original riddle didn't specify a one syllable answer. Perhaps crow was the original answer?

[Crunchy Frog]

Ok, I can answer this one, but I don't want to ruin the fun of figuring it out for anyone else who may be reading this thread. ;)

[samclem]

Brat Just answer me this...do you have any knowledge that it goes back to the last century, or did you just figure it out on your own?? Thanks.

[Crunchy Frog]

sorry, samclem, I was just being a smart-ass, I really have no clue.

[samclem]

the link (http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/qs.xp?ST=PS&svcclass=dnyr&QRY=gentile+detests+me&defaultOp=AND&DBS=1&OP=dnquery.xp&LNG=ALL&subjects=&groups=&authors=&fromdate=&todate=&showsort=score&maxhits=25)

This will give you the links from deja.com(actually, alt. brain.teasers message board.

Hope this helps....and if my link is screwed up, sorry...



[Edited by manhattan on 07-16-2000 at 07:28 PM]

[samclem]

the link again (http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/qs.xp?ST=PS&svcclass=dnyr&QRY=gentile+detests+me&defaultOp=AND&D BS=1&OP=dnquery.xp&LNG=ALL&subjects=&groups=&authors=&fromdate=&todate=&showsort=score&maxhits)



[Edited by manhattan on 07-16-2000 at 07:30 PM]

[samclem]

Sorry to make a mess of it. Itseems to have a life of its own. HELP, MANNY!

[Crunchy Frog]

Admit it samclem, you're just trying to boost that post count. ;)

(Actually, I've been playing with it trying to get it to work for you, and it keeps fighting me too) It's a devil-link, quick get the Holy Water out of the van!!

[tcburnett]

Samclem, your link works fine if you just copy and paste.
And, I think you have it old sod! The answer is as clear as a wet bird dropping on your new tuxedo.

[Wood Thrush]

Originally posted by samclem
Sorry to make a mess of it. Itseems to have a life of its own. HELP, MANNY!

samclem, did you try using the "preview" button?

[samclem]

yes

[Wood Thrush]

This worked in preview. (http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/qs.xp?ST=PS&svcclass=dnyr&QRY=gentile+detests+me&defaultOp=AND&D BS=1&OP=dnquery.xp&LNG=ALL&subjects=&groups=&authors=&fromdate=&todate=&showsort=score&maxhits)

[samclem]

"You're a better man than I, Gunga Din".

Oh, wait. That's the line I was gonna use in the 1939 movie thread......

[Crunchy Frog]

That's working for me too, Wood Thrush, too bad that every link on that page is dead for me. Could somebody email me with what it says?

[Wood Thrush]

next time, samclem, pay attention to the preview, okay?

This may be the answer (http://x75.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=630382139&CONTEXT=963778477.1315569779&hitnum=5).

[samclem]

Dear Thrush,

I paid attention to the "Preview"

It didn't work.

I still don't know why.

If you could enlighten me as to why your link worked and mine didn't, I will bow at your feet:D

I truly did everything I could to make it right, and I am not a first-timer. I would love to know what I did wrong.

[manhattan]

I don't know why preview did not show that the link would now work. For how to make it work, check the FAQ and/or spend some time test-firing over in About This Message Board.

Or drop me an email. With the "moved threads" threads up to >100 posts, I'm among the world's premier experts in VB code. Yeah, not much, but I'll take what I can.

[Manta]

Answer probably is "Raven"

The raven croaks before a storm, it was once an object
of worship, and is seldom seen. It was forbidden the
Jew as food (see Lev xi. 15). It was alone with Noah in
the Ark when its mate was sent forth. It weighs about 3
pound and it is the name of a small South Carolina island -
presumably a mile long. * My first and my last* R N
(the Royal Navy) are certainly *the pride of this isle*.

[Apollyon]

It's an Onion!

Ok... to be fair it doesn't sound much like an onion, but I have found that to be an uncommonly correct answer when it comes to riddles. :)

So, Manta... Raven sounds good, but how do the "Kings" lines fit in?

Kings sit at my feet who wait at my nod
To kneel in the dust on the ground I have trod.

I guess one King might be Odin who was had two Ravens that assisted him. But Kings, plural? OTOH, to "go to the Ravens" was used by Kipling to mean dying.

[SpoilerVirgin]

Someone pointed out in the same thread where samclem found the answer that the Tower of London is famous for its colony of ravens. Kings sitting on the Tower grounds would be at the feet of ravens, and if they knelt there for ceremonies, they would be kneeling on grounds where ravens had trod.

This page has a picture of a raven at the Tower, and mentions the legend that when there are no longer ravens in the Tower both the White Tower and the British Commonwealth will fall.

http://www.toweroflondontour.com/beauchmp.html

[Lance Turbo]

The OP did specify that the answer was a one syllable word. It seems to me that that would count "raven" out.

[Danielinthewolvesden]

Folks, there is NO freaking answer. Ok? Some newbie read this and posted it, and he doesn't know the answer either. Likely the answer is 'raven", but we will never know. I think GH did not think to count the sylables. It's like "why is a raven like a writing desk?", where you could guess all you want, but nobody can tell you you're right or wrong.
My guess is "rutabaga". :D

[samclem]

All I want to know now is, did the Bishop of Salisbury truly invent this in the 1800's in whatever form?

If the answer is "yes" and there was no tag line at that time saying "one syllable", then RAVEN makes sense.

Perhaps someone updated this riddle, and there truly is a one-word answer that will fit with the added lines.

Sam"still believes in Santa" C

[gabbyhayes]

from

http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/gryFARQ.html

Words that end in -gry

For reasons that we can't determine, the "-gry question" is turning up again and again from our patrons. The best and most comprehensive answer to it comes from the Stumpers discussion list for reference librarians, and we quote from it below.

Here is the question in its correct "puzzle" form. "Think of words ending in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everybody uses everyday. If you have listened carefully , I've already told you what it is."

The secret here is that the real question is "There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word?" That is, there are only three words in the phrase "the English language". The third word is "language", which is indeed something we use every day. The first two words are "the" and "English".

Having found the answer to the actual riddle, however, you may still wonder if there are any other English words ending in -gry. There are. The intrepid reference librarians of Stumpers found the following answers to the question:

For a very long list of -gry words, including places and other proper names, see the Solution to the /language/english/spelling/gry problem in the rec.puzzles Usenet group's Language Puzzles Archive.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, five words in the English language end in -gry. In addition to the common angry and
hungry:

aggry, a glass bead found buried in the earth in Ghana.
puggry, a light scarf wound around a hat or helmet to protect the head from the sun, and
meagry, of meager appearance.

( --Ann Landers column, in response to question what word besides angry and hungry ends in -gry. Daily Breeze (Torrance CA) 1/31/89; also in Los Angeles Times1/31/89 p. V8.)

William Safire in What's the Good Word (1982) says the question is a hoax, intended to waste the questionee's time. He quotes David Guralnik, editor of Simon & Schuster's Webster's New World Dictionary as saying there are no other "native English words" so ending, except angry and hungry. Guralnik notes three imported words:

puggry -- an Indian turban; a scarf worn around a sun helmet.
mawgry -- from Old French: being regarded with displeasure.
aggry -- colored glass beads worn by Africans.

RQ, spring 1976, with 12 responses to a fall 1975 question, listed aggry ("describes a certain type of variegated glass bead found buried in the earth in Ghana and in England"), citing Webster's Third and OED, puggry, a variant spelling of puggree ("a light scarf wound around a hat or helmet to protect the head from the sun"), citing OED, Webster's 2d, and Funk and Wagnall's Crossword Puzzle Word Finder.

The same article also listed gry itself (obsolete, "the grunt of a pig, the dirt under the nail; hence the veriest trifle," further explained as "the smallest unit in Locke's proposed decimal system of linear measurement, being the tenth of a line, the hundredth of an inch, and the thousandth of a ['philosophical'] foot."), citing OED, also in Walker's Rhyming Dictionary of the English Language and Funk and Wagnall's New Standard Dictionary.

More about -gry ... if you care

Hungry. Aside from angry, the only other common English word that ends in -gry. For reasons unclear, the commonest query that is addressed to the editors at the G.C. Merriam Company goes like this: "There are three English words that end in -gry. Hungry and angry are two of them, what is the third?" Among the 450,000 entries in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, there is only one other, which is anhungry, an obsolete word for hungry that is allowed to stay in the dictionary because it shows up in Shakespeare. (Coriolanus. I:i:209.) Editors at Merriam have found a few others buried deep within the OED, usually as variant
spellings. One is puggry, one of several spellings of pugaree (also pugree, puggree, puggaree), which is a scarf wound around a sun helmet.

-- Dickson, Paul. Words. New York: Delacorte Pr., 1982. p. 194-195.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Check his post count, and don't be too mean.