What are the riddles that Gollum asked Bilbo in The Hobbit?

Gollum: What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up, up it goes, and yet, never grows? 2.

game of riddles
They agree to play a game of riddles; if Bilbo won Gollum would show him the way out, if Gollum won he would eat Bilbo. Most of the riddles in The Hobbit are asked and answers in similar terms as the book, including Bilbo’s questionable last “riddle”, ‘what have I got in my pocket?’

If Gollum’s riddle stumps Bilbo, he will eat Bilbo, but if Bilbo’s stumps Gollum, Gollum will show Bilbo the way out of the mountain. He goes to his island in the middle of the lake to get his “precious,” a golden ring that makes its wearer invisible—the very ring that Bilbo had found.

He happens to feel the ring in his pocket and asks himself, out loud, “What have I got in my pocket?” Gollum takes this for a riddle and demands three guesses. They are all incorrect, and he heads to his island, planning to get his ring, sneak up on Bilbo invisibly, and eat him.

• Riddle 1: What has roots as nobody sees,
• Riddle 2: Voiceless it cries,
• Riddle 3: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
• Riddle 4: Alive without breath,
• Riddle 5: This thing all things devours;
• Answers: (1) mountain, (2) wind, (3) dark, (4) fish, (5) time.

The riddles of Bilbo and Gollum

• Gollum: What has roots as nobody sees,
• Bilbo: Thirty white horses on a red hill,
• Gollum: Voiceless it cries,
• Bilbo: An eye in a blue face.
• Gollum: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
• Bilbo: A box without hinges, key, or lid,
• Gollum: Alive without breath,
• Bilbo: No-legs lay on one-leg,

Because he lives alone, Gollum is in the habit of speaking to himself in a hissing baby-talk, calling himself “my precious.” Trying to assess Bilbo, he engages him in a game of riddles, at which Bilbo proves his equal. Bilbo, who is still invisible, follows him, thereby discovering the way out.

(Well, okay — that last one is actually a movie, but the riddle scene is really, really nerve-wracking!) In The Hobbit, Bilbo and Gollum test their wits. If Bilbo wins, then Gollum has to show him the way out of a tunnel; if Bilbo loses, he becomes Gollum’s dinner.

How does the series of riddles between Gollum and Bilbo shape Bilbo’s character in The Hobbit? It shows that Bilbo has changed into a capable Took.

How does “luck” help Bilbo with a riddle: He was so scared, while trying to say “more time” he ended up saying “time” and that luckily was the answer.

The Grey Havens – Songs & Tales: The riddles of Bilbo and Gollum Croatian WWW Site Dedicated to the World of of J.R.R. Tolkien The riddles of Bilbo and Gollum Gollum: What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows? [A mountain] Bilbo: Thirty white horses on a red hill, First they champ, Then they stamp,

Language is a powerful weapon—Gollum is literally using it to try to kill Bilbo, while Bilbo is using it to save his life. Language is also a reflection of a speaker’s innermost thoughts and experiences: Bilbo’s and Gollum’s riddles reflect the kind of person each is and the experiences each has had.

Explore the character of Gollum, also known as Smeagol, in The Hobbit, and discern his importance across the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Study the meeting of Bilbo and Gollum in The Hobbit. Learn what Gollum is, and who plays Gollum in The Hobbit films. Updated: 09/03/2021 Who is Gollum in The Hobbit? What is Gollum?

The riddles are written in the chapter, “Riddles in the Dark” of The Hobbit. It is a mind game and mental tag-of-war between Gollum and Bilbo in which Bilbo wins at the time when he had already given up and had accepted a tie was good for him. In the order in which they appear in the book and the movie, here are the Hobbit riddles for you,