[Knygathin]

Druidic,

I would think your interpretation of "The Riddle" is, at the very least, as legitimate as my own! You also have sound open thoughts about the ambigious nature of the riddle.

I have sort of left Christianity behind me, so I generally don't think along those symbols. But the story does have the element of sin in giving into temptation, that is the destructive path down the road of illusions. And the diminish of age is a consequence of having stepped out of Paradise.

As you say, "The Riddle" can be interpreted in different ways. From different perspectives. I think your interpretation is true.

Your interpretation gives the story a certain dark mood. I didn't find the story dark at all, but rather "jolly"! (That's funny, because I tend to detect misery in most human interactions.) Almost like Alice i Wonderland, the children step into another dimension. There is only a brief sense of loss, when one of the children has gone missing. But grandmother also consolingly says, that they may come back. A passing brief thought while reading, was that she is either benevolent, or insidiously evil in tricking the children into the chest, and I set my mind on the former.

Your interpretation is probably closer to the truth, or more significant . . . that grandmother warns the children of the painful mistakes and lessons every person must make, warns them as futilely as anyone can warn. It is sad really.

I guess my interpretation is a pagan one, from a person who will not have a family, does not want to take responsibilty, and only desires to be enveloped and dissolved into Nature.