Wk. 3 Ch. 5 Riddling Rules

[Sparrow]

After several pages of the riddle game, we come to Bilbo's final puzzler to Gollum. Having asked Gollum, "What have I got in my pocket?" and having ignored Gollum's protest of, "Not fair!", Bilbo assents when Gollums demands "three guesseses." Isn't this a change in the rules? Why would Bilbo allow Gollum to make up rules so far into the game? Was the competition fair or not?

[Stormrider]

I don't think that Bilbo had really intended his question "What do I have in my pocket?" to be his riddle. It was just a question spoken out loud that HE was wondering about.

Gollum was the one who misunderstood that question to be Bilbo's next riddle. Since it really wasn't a riddle, it wasn't a fair part of the riddling game. I think Bilbo realized that and since he did not have another riddle, he allowed Gollum the three guesses.

[Desi Baggins]

It was like making a wrong right!

[Stormrider]

Bilbo's accidental question was not structured as the other riddles in the game and didn't give any clues as to the answer:

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

Bilbo was wondering out loud about what he had in his pocket and Gollum mistook it for the next riddle. Since Bilbo had no more "real" riddles to give, he agreed to let Gollum have three guesses. I guess Bilbo was trying to be "fair" by sticking to his "unfair" riddle question.

I really don't think Blbo'sss quessstion wasss fair and have to ssside with Gollum on thisss! The question really should have been thrown out and Bilbo pounced on and eaten! But wouldn't that have ruined the story! ;D

[Andorinha]

In the original story, Gollum and Bilbo do play fairly, and Gollum's honesty was accentuated:

1937 But funnily enough he need not have been alarmed. For one thing Gollum had learned long long ago was never, never to cheat at the riddle-game, which is a sacred one and of immense antiquity. (Annot. Hobbit, p. 128)

Unfortunately, D.A. Anderson does not tell us exactly how Bilbo won the game in the first version. Was it done on straight riddles, or did Bilbo still change the rules and ask the non-riddling question: "What have I got in my pocket?" All p. 128 side note tells us is that Bilbo had won the game, not how... The original version does hint at some "irregularity" in that it has Bilbo thinking "that he had won it, pretty fairly..." (Annot Hobbit, p. 128 sidenote, emphasis mine).

"Pretty fairly," hmmm sounds like Bilbo, even in the original version, felt a bit guilty about his win -- did he do something outside the rules? In this 1937 version, I think Gollum comes off as having more character than Bilbo, after all, it is Bilbo who believes in "finders keepers," (Anot Hobbit, sidenote p. 130) and has probably done something shady to win the contest. Bilbo then does something else shady, he has the ring, his rightful prize, but demands a second prize when he refuses to tell Gollum that the ring is in his possession already. Bilbo "double-dips," and gets Gollum to show him the way out. Tch, tch!

We can see how greatly JRRT altered poor Gollum's character for LOTR (FotR, The Shadow of the Past, p. 53) when Gandalf and Frodo state: Frodo: "Gollum meant to cheat all the time." and Gandalf: "Only too true, I fear."

Harumph, in the original version, Gollum would "never, never" have cheated, and it is the rascally Bilbo who does cheat!

[Stormrider]

Poor Gollum, he really had a number done on him in the original story and then in the re-write.