What are the riddle game rules in chapter 5 of the hobbit?

Answer 1

Gollum asks Bilbo multiple riddles in The Hobbit. Here are all of those he asks, with their answers.

What has roots as nobody sees,

Is taller than trees,

Up, up it goes,

And yet never grows?

Answer: Mountains

Voiceless it cries,

Wingless flutters,

Toothless bites,

Mouthless mutters.

Answer: Wind

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills.

It comes first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.

Answer: Dark

Alive without breath,

As cold as death.

Never thirsty, ever drinking,

All in mail, never clinking.

Answer: Fish

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel,

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down.

Answer: Time

Bilbo also asks Gollum several different riddles.

Answer 2

In Chapter 5, The Riddle Game, Bilbo and Gollum have a riddle contest. There are several riddles in the story.

• 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.
• Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.
• It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.
• A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid,
• A live without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.
• No-legs lay on 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 king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.
• What do I have in my pockets? (although not technically a proper riddle, once Gollum attempted to answer it, it was a valid riddle by the rules of the Game)

What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows? "Mountain"

Thirty white horses on a red hill, First they champ, Then they stamp, Then they stand still. "Teeth"

Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters. "Wind" An eye in a blue face Saw an eye in a green face. "That eye is like to this eye" Said the first eye, "But in low place, Not in high place." "Sun on the daisies." It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter. "Dark"

A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid, "Eggs"

Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking. "Fish"

No-legs lay on one-leg, two-legs sat near on three-legs, four-legs got some. "Fish on a little table, man at table sitting on a stool, the cat has the bones"

This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down. "Time"

And them the last question, which is not a valid riddle, and is contrary to the riddle game, but however is a riddle, due to the fact it was counted as a riddle by both Gollum and Bilbo.

What have I got in my pockets? "Ring"

Many authorities discuss whether this is cheating, but agree that since Gollum agreed to guess, and that Bilbo gave him three guesses, that the results have to be accepted.

Fun question! There were a lot of riddles tossed back and forth between Gollum and Bilbo down in that goblin tunnel. I'll just give you the whole bucket, dialogue and all, seeing as there is a lot of useful information in it such as who says which riddle, and what the answer is, and also seeing as I've practically memorize the whole thing, and also seeing as it has proved for very entertaining reading! Enjoy.

"You ask first," [Bilbo] said, because he had not had time to think of a riddle.

So Gollum hissed:

What has roots as nobody sees

Is taller than trees,

Up, up it goes,

And yet never grows?

"Easy!" said Bilbo. "Mountains, I suppose."

"Does it guess easy? It must have competition with us, my preciouss! If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn't answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yes!"

"All right!" said Bilbo, not daring to disagree, and nearly bursting his brain to think of riddles that could save him from being eaten.

Thirty white horses on a red hill,

First they champ,

Then they stamp,

Then they stand still

That was all he could think of to ask--the idea of eating was rather on his mind. It was rather an old one, too, and Gollum knew the answer as well as you do.

"Chestnuts, chestnuts," he hissed. "Teeth! teeth! my preciousss; but we only has six!" Then he asked his second:

Voiceless it cries,

Wingless flutters,

Toothless bites,

Mouthless mutters.

"Half a moment!" cried Bilbo, who was still thinking uncomfortably about eating.

Fortunately he had once heard something rather like this before, and getting his wits back he thought of the answer. "Wind, wind of course," he said, and he was so pleased with himself that he made up one on the spot. "This'll puzzle the nasty little underground creature," he thought:

An eye in a blue face

Saw an eye in a green face.

"That eye is like to this eye"

Said the first eye,

"But in low place

Not in high place."

"Ss, ss, ss," said Gollum. He had been underground a long long time, and was forgetting this sort of thing. But just as Bilbo was getting ready to hope that the wretch would not be able to answer, Gollum brought up memories of ages and ages and ages before, when he lived with his grandmother in a hole in a bank by a river, "Sss, sss, my preciouss," he said. "Sun on the daises it means, it does."

But these ordinary above ground everyday sort of riddles were tiring for him. also they reminded him of days when he had been less lonely and sneaky and nasty, and that put him out of temper. What is more they made him hungry; so this time he tried something a bit more difficult and more unpleasant:

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills.

It comes first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.

Unfortunately for Gollum, Bilbo had heard that sort of thing before, and the answer was all round him anyway. "Dark!" he said without even scratching his head or putting on his thinking cap.

A box without hinges, key, or lid,

Yet golden treasure inside is hid

he asked to gain time, until he could think of a really hard one. This he thought a dreadfully easy chestnut, though he had not asked it in the usual words. But it proved a nasty poser for Gollum. He hissed to himself, and still he did not answer; he whispered and spluttered.

After some while Bilbo became impatient. "Well, what is it?" he said. "The answer's not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think from the noise you are making."

"Give us a chance; let it give us a chance, my preciouss--ss-ss."

"Well," said Bilbo, after giving him a long chance, "what about your guess?"

But suddenly Gollum remembered thieving from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck -- "Eggses!" he hissed. "Eggses it is!" Then he asked:

Alive without breath

As cold as death;

Never thirsty, ever drinking,

All in mail never clinking.

He also in his turn thought this was a dreadfully easy one, because he was always thinking of the answer. But he could not remember anything better at the moment, and he was still flustered by the egg question. All the same it was a poser for poor Bilbo, who had never had anything to do with the water if he could help it. I imagine you know the answer, of course, or can guess it easy as winking, since you are sitting comfortably at home and have not the danger of being eaten to disturb your thinking. Bilbo sat and cleared his throat once or twice, but no answer came.

After a while Gollum began to hiss with pleasure to himself; "Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?" He began to peer at Bilbo out of the darkness.

"Half a moment," said the hobbit, shivering, "I gave you a good long chance just now."

"It must make haste, haste!" said Gollum, beginning to climb out of his boat onto the shore to get at Bilbo. But when he put his long webby foot in the water, a fish jumped out in a fright and fell on Bilbo's toes.

"Ugh!" he said, "it is cold and clammy!"--and so he guessed. "Fish! fish!" he cried. "It is fish!"

Gollum was dreadfully dissapointed; but Bilbo asked another riddles as quick as ever he could, so that Gollum had to get back into his boat and think.

No legs lay on one leg

Two legs sat near on three legs

Four legs got some.

It was not really the right time for this riddle, but Bilbo was in a hurry. Gollum might have some trouble guessing it, if he had asked it at another time. As it was, talking of fish, "no legs" was not so very difficult, and after that the rest was easy. "Fish on a little table, mat at table sitting on a stool, the cat has the bones," that of course is the answer, and Gollum soon gave it. Then he thought of the time had come to ask something hard and horrible. This is what he said:

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down.

Poor Bilbo sat in the dark thinking of all the horrible names of all the giants and ogres he had ever hold told of in the Shire, but not one of them had done all these things. He had a feeling that the answer was quite different and that he ought to know it, but he could not think of it. He began to get frightened and that is bad for thinking. Gollum began to get out of his boat. He flapped into the water and paddled to the bank; Bilbo could see his eyes coming towards him. His toungue seemed to stick in his mouth; he wanted to shout: "Give me more time! Give me time!" But all that came out with a sudden squeal was:"Time! Time!"

Bilbo was saved by pure luck. For that of course was the answer.

Gollum was disappointed once more; and now he was getting angry, and also tired of the game. It had made him very hungry indeed. This time he did not go back to the boat. He sat down in the dark by Bilbo. That made the hobbit most dreadfully uncomfortable and scattered his wits.

"It's got to ask uss a quesstion, my preciouss, yes, yess, yesss. Jusst one more question to guess, yes, yess," said Gollum.

But Bilbo simply could not think of any question with that nasty wet cold thing sitting next to him, and pawing and poking him. He scratched himself, he pinched himself; still he could not think of anything.

"Ask us! ask us!" said Gollum.

Bilbo pinched himself and slapped himself; he gripped on his little sword; he even felt in his pocket with his other hand. There he found the ring he had picked up in the passage and forgotten about.

"What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset.

"Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"

The above quoted text belongs to JRR Tolkien & co. No copyright infringment intended.

Answer 3

Anyone who couldn't guess the answer to the other person's question would have to pay a certain price: Gollum would have to show Bilbo the way out of the cave system is he lost, and Bilbo would be eaten by Gollum if he lost.

Answer 4

One of them is

I am a box without a lid, inside a golden treasure is hid.

The answer is an egg.

Answer 5

Golum gives a hard one bilbo gets it right and the ring slips onto his finger while running away from golum

Answer 6

speak friend and enter.

Answer 7

"What is in my pocket?"

Answer 8

Depends which riddles. Read the book