"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.
Yes.
gry?
Pasted from the Teeming Millions In-Jokes Page for the edification of newbies:
Just a guess gabbyhayes, but is the answer a duck?
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.
Gabby, don’t make me come over there…
McGuffin?
lol, Mjollnir!
Was it the thing in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction?
Spam.
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!”
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?
Cord? Stick? Time? Song? Wrap? Stretch? String? Death? Life? Steam? Breath? Storm? Cramp? Day? Year?
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.
Sorry. I should have made clear the supposed original riddle didn’t specify a one syllable answer. Perhaps crow was the original answer?
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. 
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.
sorry, samclem, I was just being a smart-ass, I really have no clue.
[/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"]the link](http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps)
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]
[/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"]the link again](http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps)
[Edited by manhattan on 07-16-2000 at 07:30 PM]
Sorry to make a mess of it. Itseems to have a life of its own. HELP, MANNY!