Abstract
Not surprisingly, Mongolian riddles on the topic of fire, as drawn from two major collections Mongol onsogo ardyn tavaar [Enigmas and Puzzles of the People of Mongolia], by G. Lovor and Ts. Ölziihitag; and Tүmen onsogo [10,000 Riddles] by Ts. Ölziihutag, reflect the central position - both physical and symbolic - of fire in the hearth (tulga) of the ger as well as in traditional herders' lives.
In this article (part of my forthcoming dissertation on Mongolian riddles), I examine symbolism in fire riddles, as well as the connection to certain fire ritual texts. Certain researchers maintain that fire cults in Mongolia were most likely never outlawed by Buddhist lamas seeking to suppress shamanistic rituals, yet neither can we exclude the possibility of earlier Zoroastrian influences (Sogdian traders, for example, who were extensively present on the territory of today's Mongolia).
In any event, Mongolian fire-riddles are succinct oral expressions of the understanding of fire, the hearth, and its appurtenances in Mongolian nomadic steppe culture, creating a micro-narrative of the entire process of fire as an organic process. External patternings of relationships (familial, societal) found in fire imagery in riddles is not only a self-situating mechanism within the larger cosmos (cf.
C. Atwood's argument), and yet ultimately, as evidenced in the riddle corpus, all aspects of the nomad's life is imaginatively centered in the sacred and sacralizing space of the fire.
The centering of the image of the Khan and his Queen (the steel and the flint needed to spark the fire) in traditional fire-ritual texts is reflected in many riddles which paint the "fire family" with ironic embellishments. (An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2nd international conference "Mongolia and the Mongols: Past and Present," held at the University of Warsaw in May 2018.)