“Very well,” agreed Bilbo. “You ask first,” he 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. “It’s a mountain, I suppose.”
“Was it so easy? Let’s have a real competition! If I ask, and you don’t answer, I will eat you. If you ask me, and I don’t answer, then I will do what you want, okay? I will show you the way out, yes!”
“All right!” said Bilbo.
“Thirty white horses on a red hill,
First they champ,
Then they stamp,
Then they stand still.”
It was rather an old riddle, and Gollum knew the answer:
“Teeth! Teeth!” Then he asked another riddle:
“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 heard, but not one of them had done all these things. He had a feeling that the answer was quite different and that he should know it, but he could not think of it. He began to get frightened, and that is bad for thinking. He wanted to shout out: “Give me more time! Give me time!” But all that came out was:
“Time! Time!”
Bilbo was saved by chance, because that was the correct 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. He sat down in the dark by Bilbo.
“Now ask me a question,” said Gollum. But Bilbo simply could not think of any question because he was really nervous. 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 terribly upset.
“Not fair![32] Not fair!” he hissed.
Bilbo just didn’t know what to ask so he repeated louder, “What have I got in my pocket?”
“Give me three guesses, three guesses” hissed Gollum.
“Very well! Guess!” said Bilbo.
“Hands!” said Gollum.
“Wrong,” said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. “Guess again!”