THE HOBBIT Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
Riddles in the Dark
When Bilbo woke up, he was not sure if his eyes were open or closed. It was as dark as dark could be! There was no one anywhere near him. Imagine how scared he was! He could not hear anything, he could not see anything, and he could not feel anything except the cold stone floor.
He got up very slowly and began to crawl until he touched the wall of the tunnel. There was no sign of goblins, and there was no sign of the Dwarves. And he was not sure which direction they were traveling when he fell. He took a guess and began crawling in that direction. He crawled for a long time in the dark, until his fingers touched something. It felt like a tiny ring of cold metal on the floor of the tunnel.
It was a very important moment in his career, but he did not realize it at the moment. He put the ring in his pocket, almost without thinking about it. It certainly did not seem very useful to him at that moment. Then he sat down on the cold floor. He was miserable. He thought about cooking bacon and eggs in his comfortable kitchen in his comfortable Hobbit-hole. He was very hungry, after all. But thinking just made him hungrier and more miserable.
After some time, he continued down the passage, passing many tunnels on one side and then on the other side. But he walked quickly past these passages - there might be goblins in them! On and on he went, until suddenly, in the dark, he stepped - SPLASH - into water! It was as cold as ice!
Bilbo could not swim, so he did not go into the water. He also imagined dark slimy things with big eyes moving in the water. There are strange things living in underground lakes. Things that swam in ages and ages ago and never left. Even in the tunnels and caves the goblins made, there are other things living in them that came in from the outside to live in the dark. And deep down here by the black water lived Gollum.
No one knows where Gollum came from. And no one knew who or what he was. He was Gollum. His body was as dark as darkness, with two big round pale eyes. His face was thin. He lived on a small island in the middle of the lake - it was in fact a lake, very deep and very cold - and he used a little boat to move quietly to and from his island.
He ate raw fish that he caught with his long fingers. And he ate raw goblins, too, when he could find them. He grabbed them in the dark from behind and choked them! Gollum was in his little boat, and he was watching Bilbo from a distance. He could see that Bilbo was not a goblin. His big round pale eyes were like telescopes in the darkness. So, while Bilbo was sitting miserable and confused on a rock near the lake, Gollum approached him silently from the water.
“It’s not a fishes, is its, my precioussss? No, but it’s a fat feast, a tasty bite it would be for us, gollum!” hissed Gollum. When he said “gollum” he made a horrible sound in his throat. That is how he got his name, but he always called himself “my precious”. Bilbo almost jumped out of his own skin when he heard the sound, and he suddenly saw the large round pale eyes looking at him in the darkness. He remembered his little sword and drew it. “Who are you?” said Bilbo, pushing his sword in front of him.
“What iss he, my preciousss?” whispered Gollum (he always spoke to himself because he never had anyone else to speak to). This is what Gollum wanted to know. He was not very hungry at the moment, only curious. If he had been hungry, he would have grabbed him first and whispered questions after.
"I am Mr. Bilbo Baggins. I have lost my dwarves and I have lost my wizard, and I have lost my way."
"What's he gots in his handses?" said Gollum, looking at the sword, which he did not quite like.
"A sword, a blade which comes from Gondolin!"
"Sssss," said Gollum, and he became very polite.
Gollum was trying to appear friendly, at least for the moment, so he said, “Praps ye sits here and talks with it, my preciousss. It likes riddles, does it?” He wanted to find out more about the Hobbit, if he was really alone or if he was good to eat. Gollum could only think of riddles. They were the only game he could remember playing with other creatures. Before he came down, down into the dark under the mountain.
“Ok,” said Bilbo, who was very nervous and wanted to agree. He wanted to find out more about this creature, if he was really alone, if he was good or bad, or if he was a friend of the goblins. “You ask first,” he said. He could not think of a riddle in his anxious condition. So Gollum hissed:
"What has roots that nobody sees, is taller than trees. Up, up it goes, but it never grows?"
"Easy!" said Bilbo. "Mountain, I imagine."
"Does it guess easy? It must have a 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. He did not want to disagree. But he was having difficulty thinking of riddles to save him from being eaten! So he thought of this one to gain some time:
"A box without hinges, key, or lid, but golden treasure inside is hid."
Bilbo thought this was a very easy riddle, but it was very difficult for poor Gollum. He hissed to himself, and cried and spit. Bilbo became impatient after some time. "Well, what is it?" he said.
"Give us a chance; give us a chance, my preciouss-ss-ss."
"Well," said Bilbo, after giving him a long chance, "what is your guess?"
But suddenly Gollum remembered stealing from bird nests long ago, and sitting next to the river teaching his grandmother to suck -"Eggses!" he hissed. "Eggses it is!" Then he asked:
"It cannot be seen, it cannot be felt, it cannot be heard, it cannot be smelt. It exists behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, kills laughter."
Bilbo of course had heard that kind of riddle before. And the answer was all around him, anyway. “Dark!” he said without having to put on his thinking cap. He continued with his next riddle.
"An eye in a blue face, Saw an eye in a green face. ‘That eye is like this eye" said the first eye, but in a low place, not in a high place.’"
"Ss, ss, ss," said Gollum. He had been underground for so long that he could not remember that kind of thing. Bilbo thought Gollum was not going to be able to answer. But suddenly, Gollum remembered a time ages and ages ago when he lived with his grandmother in a hole near a river. "Sss, sss, my preciouss," he said. "Sun on the daisies it means, it does."
These “above ground” riddles were beginning to bore Gollum. They reminded him of days when he was less lonely and cruel. They also made him hungry. So his next riddle was more difficult and more unpleasant:
"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 terrible creatures he knew, but none of them had done all of those things. He had a feeling that the answer was easy. He also thought that he should 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.
Bilbo could see his eyes coming towards him. He was terrified! He wanted to shout out: "Give me more time! Give me more time!" But the only word that came out in a frightened yell was: "Time! Time!" Bilbo was saved by pure luck. For that of course was the answer: “time.”
Gollum was disappointed again, and now he was getting angry. He was also getting tired of the game. He was becoming very hungry. Gollum sat close by Bilbo, looking at him. And Bilbo became terribly uncomfortable and completely unable to think!
"It's got to ask uss a quesstion, my preciouss, yes, yess, yesss. Jusst one more quesstion to guess, yes, yess," said Gollum.
But Bilbo simply could not think of any question with Gollum sitting so close to him, pressuring him. Bilbo thought and thought.
"Ask us! ask us!" said Gollum.
Bilbo pinched himself and slapped himself. He held his little sword in one hand and, by accident, felt in his pocket with his other hand. And there, in the bottom of his pocket was the ring he had picked up in the passage. He had completely forgotten about it!
“What do I have in my pocket?" he asked out loud. He was only talking to himself, but Gollum heard him and thought it was a riddle, and he became very 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?"
Bilbo realized what had happened. But he could not think of a better question, so he continued, “What do I have in my pocket?"
"S-s-s-s-s," hissed Gollum. "It must give us three guesses, my preciouss, three guesses."
"Very well! Guess away!" said Bilbo.
"Handses!" said Gollum.
"Wrong," said Bilbo, who was lucky and had just taken his hand out of his pocket. "Guess again!"
"S-s-s-s-s," said Gollum. He was more upset than ever. He thought of all the things he kept in his own pockets: fishbones, goblins' teeth, a bit of bat wing, and other nasty things. He tried to think of what other people kept in their pockets.
"Knife!" he said at last.
"Wrong!" said Bilbo, who had lost his own knife a long time ago. "Last guess!"
Gollum was obviously having difficulty controlling himself. He hissed and spit and jumped up and down and wriggled and squirmed. But he did not want to waste his last guess.
"Come on!" said Bilbo. "I am waiting!" He tried to sound courageous and confident, but he did not know how the game was going to end, even if Gollum guessed right or wrong. “Your time is up!” he said.
"String, or nothing!" yelled Gollum. It was not really a fair answer, making two guesses at the same time.
“Both wrong,” said Bilbo. He was very relieved that the game was over. He stood up and held out his little sword. He understood that even evil creatures were afraid to cheat at the riddle game. But Bilbo did not think he could trust this slimy thing to keep a promise, and he was right not to trust him.
Gollum did not attack immediately. He could see the sword in Bilbo’s hand. He sat there whispering to himself. Finally, Bilbo could not wait any longer.
"Well?" he said. "What about your promise? I want to go. You have to show me the way." "Iss that what we said, precious? Show the nassty little Baggins the way out, yes, yes. But what has it got in its pocketses, eh? Not string, precious, but not nothing. Oh no! gollum!" "It’s none of your business," said Bilbo. "A promise is a promise."
“Angry it is, impatient, my preciousss,” hissed Gollum. "But it must wait, yes it must. We can't go up the tunnels so quickly. We must go and get some things first, yes, things to help us."
"Well, hurry up!" said Bilbo, relieved that Gollum was going away. He thought Gollum was making an excuse to leave and was not going to come back. What was Gollum talking about? What useful thing could he have in his house on the dark lake?
But Bilbo was wrong. Gollum was coming back. He was angry now, and hungry. And he was an evil, miserable creature. He had a plan. On his island in the lake there was a place where he hid some of his personal things. And one of the things was a very beautiful, very wonderful object. He had a ring, a golden ring, a precious ring.
It was a ring of power, and if you put that ring on your finger, you became invisible! You could be seen only in full sunlight. But only because of your shadow, and that was weak and blurry. But who knows how Gollum found the ring, ages ago in the old days when there were many powerful rings in the world?
Maybe even the Master of the rings did not know. Gollum used to wear the ring at first, until it made him tired. And then he kept it in a small bag at his waist, until it irritated him. Now he usually hid it in the hiding place on his island. He liked to look at it. He could not be far from it for very long. And sometimes he put the ring on when he was hungry and did not want to eat fish anymore. He was invisible, and he was safe. But goblins were not.
Only a few hours before meeting Bilbo, Gollum had caught a small goblin-pup. How the creature squeaked! There was still a bone or two left for Gollum to gnaw later. But he wanted something soft and fat right now. “We will be very safe, we will, my precsiousss,” he hissed to himself. “It won’t see us, will it? No. It won’t see us. And its nasty little sword will not hurt us.”
That was how Gollum’s evil mind worked. He moved quickly towards his boat and pushed off into the lake. Bilbo thought that was the last time he would ever see him. But he waited for a while. He still did not know how to find his own way out, after all. Suddenly he heard a terrible screech. It made Bilbo very scared. Gollum was cursing and screaming somewhere off in the distance. He was on his island, looking for his ring that was not there.
"Where is it? Where iss it?" Bilbo heard him crying. "Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost!
"What's the matter?" Bilbo called. "What have you lost?"
"It mustn't ask us," screamed Gollum. "Not its business, no, gollum! It's losst, gollum, gollum, gollum."
"Well, so am I," cried Bilbo, "and I want to get unlost. And I won the game, and you promised. So come and let me out, and then you can continue looking!"
Bilbo was becoming annoyed at the delay and said, “Come, you never guessed my last question, and you promised to show me the way out.”
"Never guessed!" said Gollum. Then suddenly out of the darkness Bilbo heard a loud hiss. "What has it got in its pocketses? Tell us that. It must tell first."
Bilbo had no patience anymore. "Answers were to be guessed not given," he said.
"But it wasn't a fair question," said Gollum. "Not a riddle, precious, no."
"Oh well, if you want ordinary questions," Bilbo replied, "then I asked one first. What have you lost? Tell me that!"
"What has it got in its pocketses?" The sound was much louder and closer now. And Bilbo could now see two small points of light looking at him from the darkness. As Gollum became more suspicious, the light in his eyes burned in anger.
"What have you lost?" Bilbo continued. But now the light in Gollum's eyes was a green fire, and it was coming closer and closer. Gollum was in his boat, coming back to the shore where Bilbo was waiting. He was so angry because he could not find the ring, and his heart was so full of suspicion that he was not scared of the sword Bilbo was holding.
Bilbo did not understand why the creature was so angry, but he realized that Gollum was going to murder him. Just in time, he turned and ran back up the passage, feeling the wall with his hand.
"What has it got in its pocketses?" he heard the hiss loud behind him, and the splash as Gollum jumped from his boat.
“What do I have in my pocket?” Bilbo asked himself, as he ran up the dark passage. He put his hand in his pocket. The ring was very cold as it quietly slipped onto his finger.
The hiss was close behind him. He turned around and saw Gollum's eyes coming up the passage. They were like small green lamps. Bilbo was terrified! He tried to run faster, but suddenly he hit his toes on a rock in the floor, and he fell on his stomach with his little sword under him.
Bilbo prepared himself for the attack, but before he could do anything - catch his breath, stand up, move his sword, Gollum passed by. He did not even look at Bilbo. He continued running up the passage, hissing and whispering. Bilbo stood up. His body hurt. His sword was glowing in the dark - goblins were nearby. He put the sword in its scabbard, and he began to follow Gollum carefully. What else could he do?
"Curse it! curse it! curse it!" hissed Gollum. "Curse the Baggins! It's gone! What has it got in its pocketses? Oh we guess, we guess, my precious. He found it, yes he must have."
Suddenly Gollum sat down and began to cry, a sound that came from his throat. It was a horrible sound to listen to. Bilbo stopped and stayed close to the tunnel wall. Soon Gollum began to talk again. He seemed to be having an argument with himself.
"We can’ts go back to look for it, no. We doesn't remember all the places we visited. We won’ts find it anyway. The Baggins has it in its pocketses; the nassty cheater has found it, we says. We guesses, precious, only guesses. We can't know until we find the nassty creature and squeezes it. But it doesn't know what it can do, does it? It'll just keep it in its pocketses. It doesn't know, and it can't go far. It's lost, the nassty thing. It doesn't know the way out. It said it doesn’t know."
But it knows a way in, it does. If it knows a way in, it must know a way out, yes. It's going to the back-door. The back-door, that's it. The goblinses will catch it then. But if it has our precious, then goblinses will get it, gollum! They'll find it, they'll find out what it does. One of the goblinses will put it on, and then no one will see him. He'll be there but not seen. Not even our eyeses will notice him; and he'll come sneaking and catch us, gollum, gollum!"
"So let's stop talking, precious, and make haste. Hurry, hurry! If the Baggins went that way, we must go quick and see. Go! Not far now. Make haste! Hurry!" With a jump, Gollum got up and started running very quickly.
Bilbo ran after him, carefully at first. He was afraid he was going to trip again and fall and make a loud noise. He was full of hope, though. It seemed that the ring was a magic ring - it made you invisible! He had heard of magic rings, of course. But it was hard to believe that he had really found one, and by accident.
They ran on and on. Bilbo was behind him, moving as silently as a Hobbit can. Suddenly, Gollum stopped at the entrance to a passage on the right side of the tunnel. “Here's the passage!" he said. He looked in, and then stepped back. "But we mustn't go in, precious, no we mustn't. Goblinses down there. Lots of goblinses. We smells them. What shall we do? Curse them and crush them! We must wait here, precious, wait a little and see."
So, Gollum had brought Bilbo to the way out after all, but Bilbo could not get in! Gollum was sitting in front of the opening to the passage and blocking it! Bilbo could see the glow of his eyes as his head moved from side to side in the darkness. Bilbo was right behind him, and suddenly Gollum became very still, and he sniffed the air. His eyes became a bright green.
He made a terrible hissing sound. He could not see the Hobbit, but now he was alert. And he had other powerful senses he could use in the darkness: hearing and smell. Bilbo almost stopped breathing, and he became perfectly still himself. He was desperate. He must get away, out of this horrible darkness. He must fight. He must kill the horrible creature in front of him. Gollum was going to kill him for sure.
But Bilbo was a very fair Hobbit, as most Hobbits are. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had never really threatened to kill him, or tried to kill him yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. Suddenly Bilbo understood. He imagined how this poor creature lived, day after day, age after age, alone, with only the darkness and goblins around him.
All these thoughts came into Bilbo’s mind in a flash. And with one final decision, he found new strength and he jumped! It was not an impressive jump for a man, but it was a jump in the dark - over Gollum’s head, two meters forward and one in the air! He did not know it, because it was very dark, but he almost broke his skull on the low entrance to the passage.
Gollum turned and threw his hands out and tried to grab what he could not see! But he was too late. He caught nothing! Bilbo landed and ran quickly down the tunnel. He did not turn around to see what Gollum was doing. There was a terrible scream from behind him, filled with hatred and despair. Gollum was defeated. He had lost. He lost his prey, he lost his dinner, and he lost the only thing he ever loved in his cruel and miserable life, his precious.
Bilbo felt terrible for the poor creature, but he continued on. He heard a voice from behind him, very far away, like and echo: "Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!" Then there was silence.
Bilbo took out his little sword and it glowed blue - there were goblins nearby! The passage went on for a long time still. But the passage turned left and there, in the distance, Bilbo could see a very pale light. Not the light of a fire or torch - it was the light of the sun! Bilbo began to run, as fast as his legs could carry him! He turned the last corner and suddenly he came running right into an open space where the light was very bright.
The light was coming through a large stone door that was open just a little. Bilbo blinked his eyes. After being in the dark for so long, this light was very bright! And then he saw the goblins! Lots of goblins wearing armor and carrying swords. They were all looking at the door and waiting. They were also watching the passage that came to it. They were alert and ready for anything.
The Goblins saw Bilbo before he saw them. Yes, they saw him. Maybe it was an accident, or maybe it was the final cruel trick of the ring, but it was not on his finger. The goblins yelled with anticipation and they all ran towards him. Bilbo felt a strong sense of fear and finality. He did not even take out his sword. He just put his hands in his pockets…
And there was the ring, in his left pocket, and it slipped onto his finger. All the goblins stopped suddenly. They could not see him anymore. He had disappeared. They all yelled even more, but in anger this time. There was terrible confusion as they all tried to decide what to do.
Bilbo was terrified, but he thought to himself, "I must get to the door, I must get to the door!" So he gathered all his courage and ran straight for the opening in the door. The place was full of goblins and he was knocked over by a goblin who did not understand what he bumped into! Bilbo got up on his hands and knees and crawled as fast as he could between the legs of the goblin captain. He stood up and ran for the door.
The door was still open, but just a little. Biblo tried, but he could not move it. He tried to squeeze through the opening. He squeezed and squeezed, but he was stuck! It was terrible! His buttons caught on the edge of the door. He could see outside into the open air: there were some stairs going down into the trees. The sun came out from behind a cloud and was bright on the door.
Suddenly one of the goblins inside shouted: "There’s a shadow by the door. Something is outside!" Bilbo's heart jumped into his mouth. He gave a terrific push. Buttons burst off in all directions. He was through! His coat and waistcoat were torn and buttonless, but he was free! He jumped down the stairs like a goat as the confused goblins were still picking up his beautiful buttons.
Of course they came after him, yelling and shouting and hunting him through the trees. But goblins do not like the sun: it makes them weak and scared. They could not find Bilbo now with the ring on, running quick and quiet, and staying out of the sun under the trees. So soon they went back confused and frustrated to guard the door. But Bilbo had escaped.
