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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Main:
Eighteen down, one to go, yess, yess:
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sador
Half-elven
May 28 2013, 10:12am
Views: 670
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Eighteen down, one to go, yess, yess
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Well, I've missed one week - so for me it's still the 17th...
1. Bilbo finds himself alone in the Goblin tunnels. He continues down and down, until he does something suddenly that pulls him up sharp and short. What?
We has no matches!
But that was before he started his trek down. A second shock was his foot finding something cold, and wet. He got down to the water!
But rather turn the pipe and waters course
To serve thy sinnes...
- George Herbert
In fact, in was a lake, rather than a stream.
As an aside, I must point out that hobbits are very soft-footed, even when unexpectedly encountering water. Gollum never heard him.
So how did he find out?
Do you remember that in the previous chapter, Bilbo woke up with a start? Well, it wasn't just his dream - or rather, the dream reflected the reality (warning - more Freud below!)
After a long night out in the cold, with no fire in the cave, he naturally woke up... but was grabbed by goblins, Dori, Bombur and Dori again, then falling down and bumping his head, and now unexpectedly wading into the water... there are certain needs that just can't be denied overlong.
Of course, JRRT wouldn't tell you that!
2. Where does Gollum make his home, such as it is?
Well, inside the lake there was an island. But I have quoted Johnne Donne in SAST #1 already.
This is just the moment to admire Bilbo's resourcefulness in laying a devillish trap for Gollum.
You see, is no-man is an island, it has no-legs.
One-leg could mean the mountain; after all, the Misty Mountain do have foothills, right?
Two-legs could be Gollum himself.
But Gollum is sitting on his boat... wait a minute! The boat doesn't have three legs! 
Ah... Bilbo could have got him there. After barely realising this was a wrong trail, there is no way Gollum could calmly work out the real answer. Crafty Bilbo!
But unfortunately, Gollum did not quite listen in his English classes; rather, he would think of devious ways to suck eggsses.
So he didn't fall into this pitfall; and on the other hand, he managed to solve the egg riddle.
Which serves to teach you, children - sometimes, not paying attention in class does pay off.
I hope my kids don't read this...
3. What’s the answer to this riddle? “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.”
At last - one answer which can refer to Thorin!
But no. not to his hair - even if "Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. / It lies behind stars and under hills,/ And empty holes it fills./ It comes first and follows after" might be a good approximation. (well, if odorless shampoo is properly apllied to it!)
It refers to his untimely demise, thirteen chapters hence ( ). As in Abraham Cowley's:
Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say Have ye not seen us walking every day? Was there a tree about which did not know The love betwixt us two? Henceforth, ye gentle trees, for ever fade; Or your sad branches thicker join And into darksome shades combine, Dark as the grave wherein my Friend is laid.
But could have the Oxford-centered JRRT really meant that?
4. When Bilbo asks his last question, “What have I got in my pocket?”, Gollum guesses four things in his three guesses. Name all four of these things. [Must get all four for credit!]
All four? 
Thorin's letter.
Bilbo's pipe.
No... in either case, Gollum would have won. So now I need to think of four different wrong answers!
And snub-nosed .38...
Wrong book!
4a. Hands. Gollum apparently thought Blibo was a really good English gentleman, and kept his hands to himself. Luckily, Bilbo has lost his some time ago...
??? ...  ...  .... that refers to the next guess.
4b. Knife. Another good guess, of a double practical value - had this guess been right, Bilbo having Sting in his pockets and his hands out of it, would have helped a lot (Gollum didn't quite register that Bilbo considered Sting a real sword). Also, it would have helped after dinner was caught...
4c-d. With both these guesses wasted, Gollum became understandably nervous. And just like an example straight out of like Freud's textbook, once neurosis set in, he began to think of religion. An uncalled-vision arose, in which he saw -
But not in silence holy kept; the Harp
Had work and rested not, the solemn Pipe,
And Dulcimer, all Organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on Fret by String or Golden Wire
Temper'd soft Tunings, intermixt with Voice
Choral or Unison...
(lines_594-599)
But coming from a family of hard-nosed agnostics, he just couldn't accept that without qualifying it. So he shrieked: "String, or Nothing!"
Both wrong, of course - as playing music is forbidden on the Shabbat.
5. As Bilbo is making his escape from the Goblins, he gets himself stuck in the doorway between the door and the doorpost. What part of his clothing does he lose when he gives a terrific squirm and manages to free himself?
Yes, it's a. marvell how he manages to get free!
Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide...
But he did not cast aside all his vest - only the buttons.
(This post was edited by sador on May 28 2013, 10:21am)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by sador
(Half-elven) on May 28 2013, 10:21am
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