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Old 12-04-2000, 11:02 AM   #1
Mithadan
Spirit of Mist
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Tol Eressea
Posts: 3,310
Mithadan is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Mithadan is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
Ring Bilbo cheated?

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shade of Carn Dûm
Posts: 363
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I recently gave my 7 year old daughter a copy of the Hobbit, which she is devouring eagerly. She just finished Chapter 5, Riddles in the Dark, and I asked her what she thought. She replied, in a somewhat disappointed voice, that &quot;Bilbo cheated.&quot; I explained to her that Gollum had agreed to try to answer the &quot;What's in my pocket?&quot; question, which she quietly accepted (and I did not explain that Gollum would have tried to kill Bilbo anyway).

Her reaction was a bit unexpected. Did Bilbo cheat (and I know what JRRT explained in the prologue to LoTR)? Did Gollum's agreement to answer the riddle correct any impropriety in the question? Was Bilbo's &quot;riddle&quot; somehow prompted by the influence of the Ring itself (the Ring was being sought by Sauron and needed to leave the caverns to again come to light so its master might find it)?

--Mithadan--
"The Silmarils with living light
were kindled clear, and waxing bright
shone like stars that in the North
above the reek of earth leap forth." </p>
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