Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part B

I have to say, I thought the difference in the other riddles and the goblin's "great riddle" was kind of huge. All the riddles but the last were, excepting perhaps the situation with the transposed heads, value judgements where I think at least American/European society would be put off by the idea that there's an objectively correct answer. Or a riddle where a woman is "given" to a man in the first place. 

Anyway, the last riddle was different from the previous, as it involved more of an objective fact, I think. My stab at it is that the child of the daughter and father would be the mother’s grandchild by blood, sibling-in-law by marriage. Meanwhile, the child of the mother and son would be the daughter’s (half) sibling by blood, grandchild by marriage. Either by blood or by marriage, the children will be great-uncle/aunt and grand-nephew/niece. Who fills what role depends on whether you’re looking at it from a perspective of relation by blood or marriage, but either way, one will be each of those. The goblin doesn’t ask who would be what, just what the relationship between the children would be, so my answer should be satisfactory.

Since I took the time to type all that out, I’m really tempted to skip the lesbian stuff and rewrite the story where the king actually answers the riddle and the vetala is so shocked that he just goes with him after that. I’m still invested in the lesbian idea, though. It just doesn’t really work with the last story. Or maybe I’ll do my lesbian idea, and link to this post in my author’s note, since it contains my proposed solution. That would let me feel validated in my (hopefully correct) answer, and I’d still get to write about my people.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. Source.

Image: Vetala. Source.