'He knew of course, that the riddle-game was sacred
and of immense antiquity, and even wicked creatures
were afraid to cheat if they played it.'*
These riddles are from the Hobbit (Riddles in the dark). Later I may add some riddles from Anglo-Saxon Literature, which I have little doubt Tolkien will have read.
What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees Up, up it goes, And yet never grows?
Thirty white horses on a red hill, First they champ, Then they stamp, Then they stand still
Voicless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.
An eye in a blue face Saw an eye in a green face. "Thet eye is like to this eye" Said the first eye, "But in a low place, Not in high place."
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be hear, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills.
A box without hinges, key, or lid. Yet golden trasure inside is hid,
Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.
No-legs layon one leg, two legs sat near on three-legs, four-legs got some.
This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays kings, ruins town, And beats high mountains down.
What have I got in my pocket?
From a letter to Allen & Unwin
20 September 1947
"As for the Riddles: they are 'all my own work' except for 'Thirty
White Horses' which is traditional, and 'No-legs'. The remainder,
though there style and method is that of old literary (but not of
'folk-lore') riddles, have no models as far as I am aware, save
only the egg-riddle which is a reduction to a couplet (my own) of a
longer literary riddle which appears in some 'Nursery Rhyme' books,
notably American ones.....I also feel constrained to remark that 'Sun
on the Daisies' is not in verse (any more than 'No-legs') being but
the etymology of the word 'daisy', expressed in riddle-form."
(Letters, No. 110, p.123)
![[Gollum and Bilbo, by Alan Lee]](riddles1.jpg)
